The central government should allow residents more say in the long-term reconstruction of earthquake-hit areas and give priority to the quality of the rebuilding process rather than its speed, international experts said yesterday.
A group of UN, US, Japanese and European experts said Beijing should learn from major disasters across the world in order to avoid making similar mistakes in its reconstruction in Sichuan and neighbouring provinces.
The highly centralised, top-down approach appeared to have been effective in the wake of the earthquake in the short term, but it might not be a good option in the long term, they said.
The remarks were made at a forum at Tsinghua University organised by the China Planning Network, a group sponsored by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
'The government should resist the temptation to do everything and think they know all the answers,' said Robert Olshansky of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. 'They should listen to what people are saying and try to bring as many voices into the rebuilding process.'
Professor Olshansky, who was involved in the post-Katrina planning process in New Orleans in 2005, said the central government must take a core leadership role in the process, become 'a central point of information' and provide assistance to businesses and organisations.
He said the experiences in post-disaster efforts in earthquake-prone Japan and Aceh in Indonesia in the wake of the 2004 tsunami showed that public participation had greatly helped facilitate recovery and reduce social tensions.