英闻天下——352 China to Push Forward Gov't Reform to Decentralize Administration

 　　The communique issued following the plenary session says the latest round of government reform is designed to try to build a "simpler and decentralized administration".

 
　　The communique says the CPC Central Committee is committed to improving the "cleanness and efficiency" of the government.
 
　　Following the 3-day Central Committee session, CPC chief Xi Jinping says administrative 1 reforms will "remove obstacles standing 2 in the way of socio-economic development".
 
　　This will be the seventh major government department restructuring over the past 30-years.
 
　　Professor Zhu Lijia, public management expert with the Chinese Academy of Governance, says this latest round of reforms are going to be based on what's been done since 2008.
 
　　"The reform in 2008 still left several prominent unresolved issues, including the lack of cooperation between different departments and coordination 3 within a government department. This time they are trying to address those problems, to build a government for the people with its main focus on market supervision 4, communal 5 management and public service."
 
　　The plenary session has promised to carry on with the so-called "super-ministry 6" reform to make its administrative bodies more efficient.
 
　　Professor Zhu Lijia says this round of the "super-ministry" reforms should help further define the role of government departments.
 
　　"The reform is aimed at further clarifying the boundary among policymaking, policy implementation 7 and supervision. Right now the problem is that many government bodies are policymakers but they are also the implementers and supervisors 8. It is not difficult to understand why this leads to low efficiency."
 
　　Fifteen central government departments were involved in the last round of restructuring in 2008.
 
　　This time, it is expected a ministerial-level food safety watchdog and a super body combining the functions of the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Railways will be formed.
 
　　Alongside the "super-ministry" reforms, the central government is also being tasked with transferring some of its responsibilities to lower-level governments and social organizations.
 
　　The communique following the CPC Central Committee meeting says this will be done by "further separating government administration from enterprises, investment, social undertakings 9 and communal management".
 
　　Zhu Lijia says this is the essence of the reform.
 
　　"A modern China requires a power-decentralized government and strong social organizations. That's the right direction for the government to maintain the quality of social development and improve people's livelihoods 10. The central government needs to decentralize its power and clarify its functions."
 
　　Three-decades of administrative reforms in China have so far reduced the number of central government department from 52 to 27, on top of cutting almost 30 organizations affiliated 11 to the State Council.
 
　　For CRI, I'm Su Yi.