On 9 April, the Institute of Service Excellence at SMU (ISES) and the Pudong Innovation Research Institute (PIRI) signed an agreement to embark on a joint research programme aimed at developing a comprehensive user satisfaction measure for services offered in Shanghai’s Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park. This is the first time China is adopting a comprehensive customer service satisfaction measurement index, in a bid to take a scientific approach towards measuring the standards in the service industry and service economies, which will be used as a reference as it develops policies for its service sector.