A current buzzword in Kunming officialdom is 'soft environment', which covers impalpable influences on daily life such as policies, laws and regulations. On Friday the Kunming Daily announced that "Kunming will put everything it has into creating a top-quality soft environment".

The next day, the newspaper took local government transparency in China to a new level. David Bandurski at China Media Project summarizes what happened:

"Since the weekend the Web has buzzed in China with the news that Kunming Daily, the mouthpiece of top leaders in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province, printed a list of the names of city officials, their contact numbers and their specific areas of responsibility.

The February 16 edition of Kunming Daily included a four-page spread with information on local government officials. An online copy of the list, which ran on the Kunming news site www.clzg.cn, was feverishly downloaded by Web users, according to a report in today's China Youth Daily."

This rare example of transparency by a local government in China precedes a much-hyped upcoming national law regarding openness of information that is scheduled for approval in May.

According to Kunming's top official, party secretary Ying Yongsheng, a manual regarding Kunming's soft environment will be publicized soon to make the city's government more navigable for residents and investors.(By Chris)

昆明致力于建设更加透明的政府

当前，昆明政府的一个专业词是“软环境”，这个词对日常生活有无形的影响，例如政策，法律和法规。星期五，昆明日报宣布“昆明全力打造优质软环境”。

第二天，昆明日报将中国本地政府的透明度提升到一个新的层次。中国传媒项目（China Media Project）研究员班志远(David Bandurski) 对这些进行总结：

“由于本周末网络对昆明日报（云南省会城市，昆明市领导的传音筒）刊登的昆明市官员名录、联系电话和主管事务的消息产生强烈反响。

昆明日报2月16日刊登了4页关于昆明政府官员更详细的信息。根据今天中国青年报的报道，昆明新闻网站www.clzg.cn的网络版名单被网友疯狂下载。”

在中国，在今年5月即将生效的关于信息公开的国家法律之前，发生这种当地政府透明度的例子很罕见。

昆明市市委常委、纪委书记应永生透露，围绕昆明软环境建设的手册将很快公布，方便百姓和投资者使用。（作者：chris，翻译：Evelyn Zhang）