Abstract:The Tibetan area of Qinghai Province forms and creates a globally unique plateau ecological system, often referred to as “The Source Region of Three Great Rivers” or “The Water Tower of China”. In terms of green performance evaluation, this area has undergone a process of change from simple to comparatively integrated content, from a focus on economic construction, to the coordinated development of the economy, ecology and society, and now to the integration of political, economic, cultural, social and ecological civilization construction adhering to the Five Concepts for Development. Improving green performance evaluation mechanism will provides a realistic reference and basis for objectively evaluating work results and efficiency at all levels of officials and serves as an important baton in promoting ecological conservation and green development. Four measures should be suggested in the future, that is, optimizing green performance evaluation indicators and content, establishing multiple green performance evaluation bodies, strengthening green performance evaluation supervision system and applying the results of green performance evaluation.

The Tibetan area of Qinghai Province forms and creates a globally unique plateau ecological system, often referred to as “The Source Region of Three Great Rivers” or “The Water Tower of China”. However, this area is also a sensitive ecological environment vulnerable to global climate change. Conditions here are therefore vital to the ecological security of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and to the nation as a whole. As a less developed region of China, the Tibetan Area of Qinghai Province has an increasingly acute contradiction between its economic development and ecologic conservation. It is consequently of up-most importance and long-term strategic significance to study how to evaluate and encourage the green economic development behaviors of governments and their officials at all levels through updating the existing performance evaluation mechanism and standardizing their economic behaviors. The aim is to produce a green performance evaluation system and realize the "win-win" objective of ecological conservation and economic development.

In the 2013 national organization conference, President Xi Jinping noted that leadership selection was like a wind-vane that reflected on the work style of leaders, and even of the party itself. To improve the means and methods for evaluation of officials requires looking at development and its foundation, as well as the key elements of performance. Thus indicators such as livelihood improvement, social progress and ecological benefits and their actual performance are important evaluation content. In other words, individual performance can no longer be determined simply by GDP. The inclusion of green performance indicators in the performance evaluation of all levels of governments and officials is supported and valued by the public. It is also an innovation over the traditional GDP-centered evaluation system for evaluating performance of officials. The development of green performance evaluation mechanism is therefore an important instrument for promoting the implementation of the New Development Concepts by all levels of officials, for promoting the transformation of the economic development mode and realizing the sound and rapid development of the economy. It has now become an inevitable trend.

In terms of performance evaluation, the Tibetan area of Qinghai Province has undergone a process of change from simple to comparatively integrated content, from a focus on economic construction, to the coordinated development of the economy, ecology and society, and now to the integration of political, economic, cultural, social and ecological civilization construction adhering to the Five Concepts for Development.Improving green performance evaluation mechanism will provides a realistic reference and basis for objectively evaluating work results and efficiency at all levels of officials and serves as an important baton in promoting ecological conservation and green development.

1. Optimizing Green Performance Evaluation Indicators and Content

Firstly, reversing the quality-unfocused but quantity-focused trend of evaluation indicators and establishing comprehensive indicators for green development.The indicator system for economic greenness and ecological protection should include indicators of economic development quality which can measure the extent of economic greenness, such as the rate of clean energy use, ratio of environmental protection investment, and related indicators that can measure ecological conservation and reflect the general public‘s environmental requirements such as rate of water and soil erosion, index of biological diversity, atmospheric environmental quality and grassland degradation.

Secondly, it is reasonable to take people‘s subjective feelings or concerns into consideration in the process of green performance evaluation.These subjective indicators reflect people‘s psychological concerns and expectations, and can be measured and collected through a "public opinion" survey, which will mainly cover public expectations regarding government promotion of green development.

Thirdly, highlighting two aspects of performance evaluation: tangible and intangible. It is therefore necessary to take into full consideration the achievements of various levels of governments and officials in the conservation and development of ecology, including extent of effort, progress, simplicity or complexity of the task and the concrete methods employed. Tangible and intangible ecological evaluations can adequately represent the content of an ecological performance examination.

2. Establishing Multiple Green Performance Evaluation Bodies

In response to the single and closed evaluation mechanism of "officials evaluating officials" that arises from a single evaluation body of higher organizational departments, together with the characteristics of ecological protection work, it is important to establish multiple evaluation bodies by developing three evaluation bodies such as (i) the higher and lower organizational departments, (ii) the general public and (iii)the third party (stakeholders, specialized individuals and specialized agencies) in order to carry out a green performance evaluation of governmental leading teams and officials.

Higher organizational departments are not the sole authorities in evaluating the performance of governmental officials, so it is necessary for them, based on their own self-evaluation, to fully respect citizen wishes and rights of political participation and political consultation and to provide them necessary chances and conditions to evaluate the performance of governmental officials. Moreover, if citizens are included in the system of performance evaluation bodies, it is possible to effectively curb formalism and bureaucratization and enable the general public to fully operate its rights for information, participation, expression and supervision that are granted by the national constitution.

The participation of a third party body in evaluation work is in full consideration of the special nature of ecology as a public interest.The participation of specialized individuals and agencies will greatly ensure the authority and objectivity of the green performance evaluation, as they have a simple identity but employ more professional and more scientific methods in their evaluation activities, and thus their evaluation results tend to be scientific and reliable.

3.Strengthening Green Performance Evaluation Supervision System

Supervision is an important instrument that will ensure the green performance evaluation results impartial, equal and rational. Green performance evaluation supervision consists of two parts: internal and external. Its internal supervision system is composed of specialized supervision departments regarding organization, disciplinary inspection, supervision and audit, and stakeholders as well, and they construct an internal supervision of performance evaluation by means of official administration, function and duty. By contrast, its external supervision system encompasses such social supervision organizations or groups as professionals, the general public and mass media, and they constitute an external supervision force.

In the internal and external supervision systems, it is necessary to explicitly confirm the status, responsibilities, power limit of each supervising body, and the scope, means and procedure of supervision, thus forming a comprehensive, multilevel and powerful supervision network. It is important to constantly update the system of information collection, to gradually establish a mechanism of information sharing, to unblock the channel of information streaming and to promote the coordination and cooperation of supervising bodies. In such a way, it is possible to achieve the mutual cooperation and the effective coordination among supervising bodies of different levels and different functions, thus enabling their integrated, coordinated and operated organic system to form a highly efficient supervision force.

4.Applying the Results of Green Performance Evaluation

The highest embodiment of performance evaluation rests in really reflecting evaluation results in the recruitment of officials, and regarding them as an important rationale for the adjustment of leading teams, the selection and recruitment of officials, and their rewards and demerits.

Measures for stimulating governmental officials include spiritual and material rewards, of which official promotion is undoubtedly the reward of most concern to them. Inclusion of green performance evaluation in the evaluation of officials for promotion is an important enabling factor for the adequate conduct of green development. It is therefore necessary to intensify efforts in different areas and different departments to material rewards for creating green performance.and demerits for government officials relating to hearings, accountability and transfer of position to alter their values, standardize and strengthen their green behaviors during social-economic development.

Through construction of ecological accountability system, ecological audit system and official promotion mechanism, it will fulfill diversity and practicability in applying the results of evaluation. The communication and feedback mechanism for evaluation results from the internal and external systems has also been refined. This has made it possible to give and receive timely and efficient feedback on a range of elements between the rater and the ratee, the executive and the supervisor, thus increasing the accuracy in use of evaluation results.

(Ma Hongbo，professor and President of the Provincial Party School of Qinghai Province)