The “1999 Anytime, Anything, Anywhere” of Kaohsiung won the “Short-listed City Award” of the 1st Guangzhou Award in August, 2012. The delegation of Guangzhou Award conducted a field trip to Kaohsiung of Taiwan, which lasted from Jan 13th to Jan 20, 2014. The field trip aimed at learning more about how this innovation initiative was implemented in practice and what progress had been made during its implementation. In 2012, this initiative came to the fore among 255 application initiatives, enabling Kaohsiung to be listed as one of the fifteen short-listed cities in the 1st Guangzhou Award. This innovation initiative offered valuable references for urban administrators to satisfy people’s needs better, collect public opinions and address public complaints and grievances.

The “1999 Anytime, Anything, Anywhere” of Kaohsiung is a free call-in service system that provides 24/7 non-stop services to the general public, which range from policy consultative service, public opinion collection, public grievance and complaint handling to municipal reform advice processing. By adopting this innovative initiative, the government of Kaohsiung seeks to introduce enterprise-level customer service into the government customer service system and to improve the quality of government services. Innovation for the initiative lies in the following three areas: speed-dial-and-answer services (to satisfy the public needs), a versatile and comprehensive system (to make the transition from being passive to being proactive) and a care-centered concept (to put people first).

First, the instant response services can help satisfy the public needs. The system integrates the phone lines of 31 government departments and sets up a master database to handle public inquiry and provide services in 52 categories. Services are streamlined and delivered in three forms, namely, on-line inquiry, a strict process of controlling and tracking and dispatching services. Under this system, the government can be transformed into service-oriented government. By placing one telephone call, citizens can know how their problems are processed and which government departments are duty-bound to handle their problems and eventually have their problems solved.

Second, a versatile and comprehensive system can help make the transition from being passive to being proactive. Affiliated to research, development and evaluation commission of Kaohsiung government, the system is designed to improve the commission’s capabilities for coordinated and comprehensive services. Upon receiving a citizen’s call, the system will make evaluation and analyses regarding the urgency of the matter and government departments concerned, and then dispatch specific personnel to deal with the matter. A strict process of controlling and tracking is built up to ensure that personnel from relevant government departments arrive at the site in time and report to the system on the progress of the action. The system then relays the information received from the government personnel to the citizen regularly till the matter is resolved.

Third, a care-centered concept can help put people first. The system gives a top priority to hiring people with disabilities. For instance, of all the 44 staffs working for the system, twelve are people with severe disabilities (including two visually disabled people). Barrier-free paths are installed in the offices and a day-shift system is practiced, with the Mayor Chu Chen’s concept of “taking care of the disables, disables first” putting into practice. In addition, an active out-calling and caring system is set up to care about the citizens, so that the citizens can have their needs satisfied in time.