Cutting red tape

Government rolls back a plethora of administrative approval requirements

On October 10, the State Council, China's cabinet, released a list of 171 items to be exempted from administrative approval. In addition, the responsibilities for approving another 117 items are to be handed down to departments at lower levels, 17 items are to be merged into others, while another nine items will need approval from fewer government departments.

It was the sixth time that the Chinese Government lifted or adjusted administrative approval requirements in the past 10 years.

Relaxed control

"This time, the State Council showed unprecedented determination to reform the administrative examination and approval system," said Wang Yukai, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Governance.

A State Council statement issued on October 10 said that government departments should refrain from issues that can be independently handled by citizens, corporations or other organizations, and those that can be effectively regulated by market competition mechanisms or self-managed by industrial organizations and agencies.

It also said that no prior approval procedures will be set in areas where post-event supervision and indirect management prove workable.

"This statement has pointed out the direction for future reform," Wang said.

The latest round of reform mainly clears administrative approval requirements for investment and social programs, as well as non-administrative licensing examination and approval items, with a special focus on items related to the real economy, small and micro-sized enterprises and private investment, according to the State Council's Administrative Examination and Approval System Reform Office.

"With the overall economy having slowed down and the global economy remaining fragile, reducing administrative approval requirements for private enterprises can attract more private capital," said Tang Min, a counselor of the State Council.

For instance, to set up, spin off, merge, relocate, suspend or terminate a collectively owned rural enterprise used to require approval from county-level authorities. Now, the requirement has been removed.

In this round of reform, the China Securities Regulatory Commission abolished or adjusted more than 30 approval requirements, the most among all Central Government departments, including cutting red tape for listed companies to buy back shares.

The National Development and Reform Commission, the country's top economic planner, delegated the power to approve certain types of airport expansion and berth construction projects to supervising departments of relevant industrial associations or provincial government departments.

The Ministry of Commerce also handed down the power to approve 18 categories of foreign investment programs in the service industry to lower government departments.

Administrative examination and approval for some items in the areas of education, health and culture has also been abolished. For instance, prior approval from the Ministry of Education is no longer needed to compile textbooks for primary and middle schools. The Ministry of Education has also authorized universities to establish, close down or adjust post-graduate schools. Approval from the General Administration of Press and Publication is no longer needed to publish supplementary issues of magazines.

Wang Daji, a teacher of Chinese language at Beijing Chenjinglun High School, told Beijing Evening News though some middle school teachers participated in compiling textbooks, major decisions were made by education authorities, who mainly proceeded from ideological perspectives, and experts from higher learning institutions, who usually gave more weight to the history of literature. "So, Chinese language textbooks tended to be too esoteric for middle school students," he said.