The province of Gyeonggi-do is the economic and cultural heartland of South Korea. But the provincial government only owns eight public vehicles, and if any official dares to take a bribe, he or she will be fired.

This sounds incredible in China, where even section chiefs can be assigned public cars. But it is common in many other countries. For instance, in Finland, besides the president, only four ministers can use public vehicles, and that's only for work.

Yet this doesn't undermine their efficiency, and it further proves that there is no direct link between a government's efficacy and the number of public vehicles it owns. Instead, it's determined by the quality of officials and the effort they poured into serving the public.

The Gyeonggi-do government, for instance, has a public liaison committee that specifically deals with public complaints. It functions similarly to our letters and calls bureaus, but the difference is that the Korean committee works 24 hours a day and better serves the public.

There is no secret to achieving what the Koreans have. The simplest way is that our government needs to be sincere in carrying out its reforms and tolerate no corruption.

Zhujiang Evening News