China further cuts administrative approval items

BEIJING - The State Council, China's cabinet, has decided to remove or modify 314 administrative examination and approval items in order to further clear systematic obstacles for its social and economic development and curb corruption.

The decision was included in a statement released Wednesday after an executive meeting of the State Council, which was presided over by Premier Wen Jiabao.

According to the statement, 184 administrative approval items will be canceled, while the power to approve 117 items will be handed down to government departments at lower levels. Thirteen items will be merged into other items.

This round of reductions, the sixth of its kind since the reform of the administrative approval system kicked off in 2001, mainly covers investment and social projects, with a special focus on the real economy, small and micro-sized enterprises and private investments.

In the statement, the State Council hailed the administrative approval reform for "forcefully" pushing forward the transformation of governmental functions, strengthening the market allocation of resources and boosting lawful administration.

The reform has also been seen as an effective measure for improving the government's efficiency and fighting corruption.

Figures from the State Council show that a total of 2,497 administrative approval items, including those in the sixth round, have been rescinded or adjusted in the past ten years, accounting for 69.3 percent of the total.

Previous reports said the reform was aimed at cleaning up China's over-regulated administrative approval system, which had led to unnecessary government intervention in small business.

The statement stressed that the reform should be continued to further rescind or adjust administrative approval items with the principle of "reducing and delegating whatever that is necessary."

"Governments should refrain from topics that citizens, corporations or other organizations can handle independently, a market competition mechanism can effectively adjust, or industrial groups and agencies can manage," the statement read.

It stressed that newly established approval items must be "examined for their legality, necessity and rationality" in accordance with official procedures, adding that no departments will be allowed to establish items that go against laws and regulations.

Online examinations and multiple examinations and approvals should be used to boost the administrative approval service level, according to the statement.

All relevant departments should strengthen cooperation after the modification of items in order to identify respective responsibilities, as well as strengthen monitoring to avoid "a vacuum of supervision," it said.

It also called for intensified anti-corruption efforts, as well as severe punishments for officials who abuse their power.

Reforms of the system should be combined with other reforms concerning investment, financing, taxation and administrative management in order to organize relations between the government, enterprises and individuals, it said.

The State Council also decided to list south China's Guangdong province as a pilot region for administrative examination and approval system reforms during the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-2015).

During the trial, several items in the region that were previously covered in the system will not undergo or undergo simplified procedures concerning administrative examination and approval.

Conducting the trial in Guangdong, the bridgehead of China's reform and opening up, is in accordance with the need to transform government functions, according to the statement.

It will also serve as a model for deepening nationwide administrative examination and approval system reforms and improving the socialist economic system, the statement said.

Relevant departments should cooperate with the Guangdong provincial government to solve potential problems and ensure the trial's success, the statement said.

A draft regulation concerning the protection of meteorological facilities and the environment was also approved at the council's meeting.