Guangzhou Government Departments to Undergo Reforms

Source: english.gz.gov.cn

Aa new round of reforms will kick off to improve government departmental setup and operation, as announced at a conference on social and economic development in Guangzhou on June 30.

The reforms, which are to be launched now, are designed to give rise to nine major functional departments including the Water Affairs Bureau of the Guangzhou Municipality and the Bureau of Agriculture of the Guangzhou Municipality established before January of 2008.

These departments will be launched in accordance with requirements by the Central and Provincial Governments for enlarged departments. The reforms, which cover integration of departments, classification of government institutions and power decentralization, are expected to be completed by the end of this year.

As a result of the reforms, the current over 800 administration approval systems may be cut to half of that number, said Zhu Xiaodan, Secretary of the Guangzhou Municipal Committee of the CPC.

As a result of a former round of reforms, the number of government departments has declined to 41, with one permanent office of the advisory and coordinating council and two representative offices of Guangzhou Municipality.

Officials said that Urban Management Committee will be established in 2009 to implement responsibilities that used to be shouldered by other departments in charge of urban management, environmental protection, urban utilities, urban construction and maintenance. Therefore, the relevant departments will be either integrated or cancelled.

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Editor: Ronald Li