TOP Guangdong officials met 26 high-profile Internet personalities from Shenzhen and Guangzhou at a real-time forum Thursday.

It was the first time Guangdong province's party secretary, Wang Yang , and governor Huang Huahua had talked to netizens since the two powerful politicians said in a joint open letter in early February that online feedback had become "an important foundation" of the government's decision-making process.

In yesterday's discussion, netizens' suggestions focused on regional co-operation and development, migrants' welfare and the party chief's "thought liberation" proposal.

Wang said at yesterday's meeting that he expected authorities in Guangdong to pay more attention to feedback from, and the influence of, the Internet.

But some analysts wondered whether the 26 high-profile Internet users — researchers, columnists and businesspeople — were representative of the vast majority of the Internet population. The youngest was born in the mid-1970s and many others were middle-aged.

Guangdong now has some 33 million Net users.

A survey of 30,000 Guangdong Internet users by the Southern Metropolis News showed their top concerns were public welfare, economic transformation, environmental protection, regional co-operation and education.

(SD-Agencies)