Bureaucracy sheds 1.5 million jobs

A 4.5-year streamlining exercise has resulted in a 50 per cent cut in the government bureaucracy, Premier Zhu Rongji has reported. About 1.15 million central and provincial government employees and 430,000 municipal and township cadres had been removed.

Mr Zhu revealed the figures in a Wednesday meeting of the Central Organisation Committee in Beijing. The meeting was also attended by Vice-President Hu Jintao and Central Party Organisation chief Zeng Qinghong, Xinhua reported.

Along with the personnel cutbacks, which resulted in almost a 50 per cent reduction of staff, Mr Zhu reported that 11 subordinate ministries of the State Council and about 200 departments had been abolished in the process. As a result, the Government was able to cut its payroll in half.

Mr Zhu said the exercise, which started in 1998, had only completed its first phase and more work needed to be done.

During the same meeting, Zhang Zhijian, chairman of the general office of the Central Organisation Committee, announced that a new round of streamlining would start soon. Xinhua said that in the third quarter of this year, several provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities will start a pilot programme to commercialise revenue-earning government units such as municipal economic corporations, media, social service administrative agencies and state-run research institutes.

Mr Zhang said these reforms were essential so the state could carry out reforms in education, science and research, culture and health-care systems and to reduce the burden on the nation's treasury.