Regional bureaucracies targeted for streamlining in reform plan

Bloated regional bureaucracies are set to be trimmed after the central government approved plans to streamline more than half of the provincial-level governments.

'As of January 20, the central government has approved the administrative reform plans submitted by 17 provinces and municipalities,' People's Daily, the official Communist Party mouthpiece, reported.

President Hu Jintao has made governance reform a key task of his second term since his re-election as party chief in October 2007. He has also appointed his protege, Vice-Premier Li Keqiang , to take charge of restructuring the units.

At the central level, Premier Wen Jiabao announced an administrative overhaul plan for the State Council last spring. The plan, approved by last year's annual session of the National People's Congress, was said to focus on consolidating departments that have overlapping or similar functions and merging them into five new 'superministries'.

The regional plans were part of the overall national administrative reform plan, the report said. The provincial-level governments should complete the first phase of streamlining by the middle of the year, and then the overhaul of city and county governments can begin, the report said.

The State Council is creating the superministries in a move to centralise power and reduce turf wars between agencies that often limit the effectiveness of central government policy. With the reshuffle, the State Council has 27 ministries and commissions apart from its General Office, compared with the previous 28. The plan will be phased in until 2013.