Presidency of People Republic of China : Administration reform stressed

At the first State Council executive meeting of the year on Jan 4, presided over by Premier Li Keqiang, the first and foremost thing deployed was still administration streamlining and power delegation.

Since this government stepped into office, for five years the theme of the each year's first State Council executive meeting has been accelerating government function transformation, administration streamlining and power delegation. Records show that 41 executive meetings mentioned the theme, becoming one of the most known and discussed in political and economic fields since 2013.

The proposal of the reform was gradually put forward and improved. 'With many years of practice in administration reform, we found that simply cutting organizations and staff members was not enough. On one side, it will cause the rebound; on the other, it will increase the risk of corruption. Therefore, government function transformation is the core of administration system reform,' said Wang Manchuan, secretary-general of the China Society of Administration Reform.

'Power delegation, regulation improvement and service optimization are three aspects that are supplementary to each other, and should be promoted in coordination,' Wang said.

Administration approval system reform, which has been going on in China for 15 years, is the breakthrough point to accelerate government function transformation.

Premier Li once promised at a press conference after he took office that this term of government would cut over one-third of the 1,700 existing administration items.

Progress has been beyond expectation. 'In the previous decade, the State Council cut nearly 70 percent of administration approval items, and the remaining 30 percent is more important power that will be difficult to cut. By the end of 2014, this term of government had already fulfilled the one-third task,' Wang said.