Question is not big or small, but efficiency

Source: China Daily | 03-12-2008 16:40

State Environment Protection Administration (SEPA) Vice-Minister Pan Yue knows best the embarrassment and difficulties associated with his and his subordinates' job. He knows, too, the reason for that: SEPA's weak position in the government hierarchy.

SEPA is not one of the 28 ministries directly under the State Council, the country's cabinet. Hence, it can't take part in the direct decision-making process. And local officials who pay scant regard to the environment in their rush to achieve speedy economic growth exploit that weakness.

But that no longer will be the case, thanks to the plan to restructure and merge some of the ministries that the National People's Congress (NPC) discussed at its annual session yesterday. Among the proposals is one to make SEPA a full-fledged ministry, granting it the authority to be part of major decisions. "The move is consistent with the central government's efforts to enforce its anti-pollution regulations and to pressure heavy industries further into complying or closing down," says professor of the Party School of CPC Central Committee Zhou Tianyong.

SEPA's elevation is just one of the new shake-up plans. The institutional restructuring proposed at the NPC session yesterday is a continuation of the five major government reshuffles in the past 30 years, says State Councilor Hua Jianmin. The restructuring addresses the most urgent social demand of setting up a State energy commission too. The commission is to serve as a unified energy watchdog and coordinate the national strategy.

In fact, the entire restructuring exercise is aimed at lessening government control over the market and making it shift its focus to administrative matters and services. It will re-arrange in a more rational manner the functions of government departments that exercise macro-economic regulation in reference to the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the People's Bank of China.

Central-level ministries, commissions and departments with overlapping functions have been merged into five "super ministries" to "boost administrative efficiency and reduce cost". Four ministry-level departments and commissions will no longer be there because their different wings have been merged with or into 15 ministries or commissions. The new "super ministries" are those of Industry and Information, Human Resources and Social Security, Environmental Protection, Housing and Urban-Rural Construction, and Transport.

An expert with Peking University's School of Government, Zhang Guoqing, says the restructuring is a significant step in the country's administrative reforms. "The government will now focus on policymaking, providing service and supervision instead of intervening in micro-economic operation." For instance, industrial management functions of the existing Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense will now be part of the new Ministry of Industry and Information.