South African public officials to visit China for city governance exchange

JOHANNESBURG, July 7 (Xinhua) -- A delegation of South African public officials will visit China on an exchange program to learn from China's city governance on July 7-27, a South African official said on Monday.

The National School of Government (NSG) said the delegation will be hosted by Beijing Jiaotong University and supported by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce. The training aims to equip South African public officials with knowledge on enhancing local government performance and responding to increasingly growing complexity and public expectations.

"Municipalities have a critical role in the achievement of this commitment. The exchange program on city governance is part of the NSG's international exchanges that are aimed at facilitating public servants' access to specialist knowledge and skills needed to enhance public sector performance and learning from the development trajectory of other countries in the Global South and North," said Busani Ngcaweni, principal of the NSG.

Ngcaweni said the training program explores the Chinese advancement in local government innovation in service delivery, modernization of governance, construction of smart cities, participatory governance, poverty alleviation, and development.

China successfully used local government as an important sphere of government for the implementation of national policy and contributed to the abolition of absolute poverty in 2020, said Ngcaweni.

Ngcaweni said they expect the public officials to gain knowledge that South Africa does not have. "As they enable us to expand the depth of training delivery, diversity, and allow access to expertise that we do not have," he said.

According to South Africa's national blueprint, the National Development Plan, the country aims to eliminate poverty and inequality by the year 2030.