The
10th
National People's Congress (NPC), the top legislature of China,
adopted Monday a plan submitted by the State Council for
streamlining government departments.
According to the plan, adopted by a large majority vote at the
third plenary meeting of the on-going first session of the 10th
NPC, one ministerial-level department has been struck from the list
to reduce the total number from 29 to 28.
New in the list is the Ministry of Commerce, which is mandated to
exercise the functions of the former State Economic and Trade
Commission and the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic
Cooperation, which have disappeared from the list.
The State Development Planning Commission is renamed the State
Development and Reform Commission, which is put in charge of the
country's economic restructuring, while the State Family Planning
Commission is renamed the State Population and Family Planning
Commission, which takes the responsibility of beefing up research
in population development.
Under the government restructuring plan, the State Council will
form a commission for the management of state property, responsible
for the reform and reorganization of state-owned enterprises, and a
commission to regulate the banking industry, and establish a state
food and drug administration on the basis of the State Drug
Administration to reinforce supervision over the safety of food,
health products and cosmetics. The State Administration of Work
Safety will be upgraded to oversee industrial production and coal
mining.
In
the last round of government streamlining, the number of
ministry-level departments under the State Council was cut to 29
from 40. Before that, China attempted to streamline the government
in 1982, 1988 and 1993.
(Xinhua News Agency March 10, 2003)