Guangzhou eyes banning long official speeches

Officials in the southern metropolis of Guangzhou may be restricted from giving long speeches, according to a proposal being discussed at the 12th plenary session of the Guangzhou Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China.

Officials should limit their speeches to under an hour at key meetings and less than 30 minute in less important meetings, said Wan Qingliang, secretary of the CPC Guangzhou municipal committee at the panel discussion, the Guangzhou Daily reported.

"Officials should refrain from dragging a meeting on for too long and today I set an example myself by finishing my speech at 58 minutes," Wan said on Wednesday.

Wan's proposal has caused much discussion.

"In many cases, we discuss issues in a bored and tired state due to those lengthy speeches and there isn't much time left to make decisions," said Tang Jinhua, head of the Guangzhou Municipal Agriculture Bureau.

Tang also proposed to reduce the amount of unnecessary paperwork. "Some documents were not needed at all and we just throw them away after reading the titles," Tang said.

The plenary session runs from Wednesday to Thursday during which Wan has delivered a work report on behalf of the standing committee of the CPC Guangzhou municipal committee.