Govt performance should be considered to decide annual budget

Lawmakers on Wednesday suggested that government performance should be considered in future when setting and approving annual budgets.

Li Peilin, a member of the National People's Congress, said strict performance evaluation should be introduced as a key measure when setting government budgets over the next year, to ensure best use of state resources.

Li made the remarks after an ongoing session of lawmakers, which has been considering a draft amendment on Budget Law.

If successful, the amendment would mean for the first time that the government would need to include all revenues and spending in annual budgets, and is being seen as a major step forward, following repeated calls that government departments should better detail their spending in future.

Li Jinhua, vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee, had urged the government to improve the openness of their budget reporting at a previous forum focusing on administrative reform.

Administrative system improvements have been lagging behind economic growth in recent decades, and government intervention into market practices has often been seen as excessive or inadequate, he said.

Li Jinhua, at an annual meeting of the China Society of Administrative Reform, also said government's capability to provide adequate public service is weak, its power is unrestricted, and the division of responsibility among departments unclear.

He said to solve the problems requires transparency of government affairs and the rule of law.

China pledged in 2008 to build a service-oriented, responsible, law-abiding and clean government by the end of 2020.

Zhu Lijia, an expert on public management at the Chinese Academy of Governance, said the focus on economic growth should be shifted to social construction in the upcoming decade.

"One of our key focuses is the reform of the administrative system.

"Our market economy has been set up over the past 30 years, but administrative reform has been neglected and should be brought up to speed in the next five to ten years," he said.