Opinion | Bureaucrats must not be allowed to hold back reform of approval process
Hu Shuli says that while delegating powers will benefit the economy, the law should be revised to discipline government officials who flout rules
Reforming China's administrative approval system has become increasingly urgent; it is key to reducing the government's role in the economy. In the short time since the new leadership took over, the State Council has held two executive meetings and cancelled or delegated away 133 items that required administrative approval.
On May 13, Premier Li Keqiang called for less political power in the economy to promote creativity among market players. He said China could no longer rely on stimulus policies, and it should also look at market mechanisms to aid growth.
To keep officials focused on reform, we need to specify the scope of their duty
The economic situation is tough. Reforms to the administrative approval process can provide both temporary and permanent solutions to problems, but how can the public be assured that reforms are real this time?
During China's time as a centrally planned economy, the administrative approval system was one of the government's main tools to manage the economy and society. The history of China's reform and opening up is, in fact, the history of how government simplified policies and delegated powers.
Since the Administrative Licensing Law came into force in 2004, six rounds of reform have been implemented with the result that more than 2,000 projects no longer need administrative approval. They accounted for more than 50 per cent of the total projects at the beginning of the reform. This process has taken several terms of government and more than 10 years; the determination to deepen reform is evident. However, reforms have been less effective than expected, with some local governments finding ways around the changes. Indeed, the situation is like a tumour that is difficult to heal.
One Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference member said that a business owner he knows had to pay 53 visits to various centres and get 108 chops before approval was finally granted for his investment project. The entire procedure took 799 working days. It's clear that administrative approval procedures have become formidable obstacles to China's economic transformation and sustainable development. They undermine the position of businesses in the market, distort the functions of the market and encourage corruption.
The new central leadership has developed a clearer policy direction and has kept its early promises about implementing specific measures to cut back on the number of projects that require pre-approval.