China moves for 5 super ministries
By ROBERT J. SAIGET
BEIJING: China announced yesterday it would set up five new “super ministries”, including its first one ded-icated to environmental protection, in an effort to streamline the govern-ment and fight corrup-tion.
The reshuffle of the nation’s cabinet will also see the health ministry upgraded to oversee food and drug safety, accord-ing to a copy of the plan given to journalists that will be approved at the ongoing session of parlia-ment.
Cabinet secretary-gen-eral Hua Jianmin told par-liament that the changes were necessary to make the government more efficient and to curb abuse of power.
“Public administration and public services are still weak,” Hua said.
“The phenomena of misuse of authority, abus-ing power for personal gains and corruption still exist.”
Hua said the problems of overlapping responsi-bilities and low efficiency within the government remained “quite serious”, while some areas of the bureaucracy were not being adequately super-vised.
The five new ministries will be: the ministry of industry and information, the ministry of human resources and social secu-rity, the ministry of envi-ronmental protection, the ministry of housing and urban-rural construction, and the ministry of trans-port.
A national bureau of energy would also be set up to oversee energy poli-cy across all ministries.
In an effort to improve macro-economic poli-cies, the government will establish a body to co-ordinate between the cen-tral bank, finance min-istry and the main eco-nomic planning body.
Under the new system, China’s cabinet, or state council, will have 27 min-istries and commissions, one less than before.
No timeline was given for when the reformed cabi-net would come into effect.
The establishment of the new environment ministry is part of the gov-ernment’s efforts to give more muscle to those in charge of the long-run-ning and seemingly los-ing struggle against Chi-na’s pollution problems.
“Environmental pro-tection is a basic policy of our nation.
It is linked to our national develop-ment,” Hua said, adding that China had to “expand the scope of environmen-tal management” and “create an environmen-tally friendly society”.
The state environment protection administra-tion, which has previous-ly suffered from low levels of staffing and resources, will be upgraded to take charge of the new portfo-lio.
“The establishment of the environment ministry will signal a turning point at which environmental issues are moving from the margin to the centre of governance in China,” Greenpeace campaign director Lo Sze Ping said.
“We hope the promo-tion will also give the new ministry real teeth to enforce China’s environ-mental regulations and to counter the vested inter-ests of growth-at-all-cost,” Lo said in a state-ment.
The decision to place food and drug safety under the umbrella of the health ministry is part of China’s efforts to resur-rect the reputation of those sectors following a series of scandals both at home and abroad.
The former head of the state food and drug administration, Zheng Xiaoyu, was executed last year after being convicted of taking bribes in return for approving hundreds of medicines, some that proved dangerous. Tainted food exports have also caused major tensions with some of China’s biggest trading partners, including Japan and the United States.
The new “super” trans-port ministry will bring together the bodies responsible for aviation, road and shipping.
But an independent ministry for rail has been retained, apparently sig-nalling a win for those in charge of the lucrative sector, who had reported-ly fought hard to hold on to their powers.
The National People’s Congress, or parliament, is due to vote on the ruling Communist party’s plans before the two-week annual session ends next Tuesday.
The NPC is a rubber stamp body that endorses the plans of the party. – AFP
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