On October 10, the State Council, China’s cabinet, released a list of 171 items to be exempted from administrative approval. In addition, the responsibilities for approving another 117 items are to be handed down to departments at lower levels, 17 items are to be merged into others, while another nine items will need approval from fewer government departments.
　　It was the sixth time that the Chinese Government lifted or adjusted administrative approval requirements in the past 10 years.
　　 Relaxed control
　　“This time, the State Council showed unprecedented determination to reform the administrative examination and approval system,” said Wang Yukai, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Governance.
　　A State Council statement issued on October 10 said that government departments should refrain from issues that can be independently handled by citizens, corporations or other organizations, and those that can be effectively regulated by market competition mechanisms or self-managed by industrial organizations and agencies.
　　It also said that no prior approval procedures will be set in areas where post-event supervision and indirect management prove workable.
　　“This statement has pointed out the direction for future reform,” Wang said.
　　The latest round of reform mainly clears administrative approval requirements for investment and social programs, as well as nonadministrative licensing examination and approval items, with a special focus on items related to the real economy, small and micro-sized enterprises and private investment, according to the State Council’s Administrative Examination and Approval System Reform Office.
　　“With the overall economy having slowed down and the global economy remaining fragile, reducing administrative approval requirements for private enterprises can attract more private capital,” said Tang Min, a counselor of the State Council.
　　For instance, to set up, spin off, merge, relocate, suspend or terminate a collectively owned rural enterprise used to require approval from county-level authorities. Now, the requirement has been removed.
　　In this round of reform, the China Securities Regulatory Commission abolished or adjusted more than 30 approval requirements, the most among all Central Government departments, including cutting red tape for listed companies to buy back shares.
　　The National Development and Reform Commission, the country’s top economic planner, delegated the power to approve certain types of airport expansion and berth construction projects to supervising departments of relevant industrial associations or provincial government departments.
　　The Ministry of Commerce also handed down the power to approve 18 categories of foreign investment programs in the service industry to lower government departments.
　　Administrative examination and approval for some items in the areas of education, health and culture has also been abolished. For instance, prior approval from the Ministry of Education is no longer needed to compile textbooks for primary and middle schools. The Ministry of Education has also authorized universities to establish, close down or adjust post-graduate schools. Approval from the General Administration of Press and Publication is no longer needed to publish supplementary issues of magazines.
　　Wang Daji, a teacher of Chinese language at Beijing Chenjinglun High School, told Beijing Evening News though some middle school teachers participated in compiling textbooks, major decisions were made by education authorities, who mainly proceeded from ideological perspectives, and experts from higher learning institutions, who usually gave more weight to the history of literature. “So, Chinese language textbooks tended to be too esoteric for middle school students,” he said.
　　Chu Zhaohui, a researcher with the National Institutes of Educational Sciences, hailed the Ministry of Education’s decision to relinquish its power to authorize the compilation of middle school textbooks as progress, yet he said that not enough has been done.
　　One of Chu’s complaints is following the reform, a new textbook still has to be examined and approved by education authorities before its availability in the market. He suggested that textbooks should be examined and approved by an independent agency and that schools and teachers should have the right to choose the textbooks to use. “In this way, the fittest textbooks will survive,” he said.
　　In addition, some administrative approval items have been slashed to promote international exchanges. For instance, foreigners can now enter local nature reserves administered by environmental protection authorities without prior approval. Nor do they need approval for hunting or collecting specimens of terrestrial wild animals not under national protection. Religious schools no longer need approval to hire foreign professionals.
　　 Gradual progress
　　 China’s current administrative examination and approval system is a product of the planned economy. It has long been blamed for inefficiency and corruption.
　　Gao Shangquan, Chairman of the China Society of Economic Reform, said that in the summer of 1956, a company in Shanghai sought approval from 11 government departments to install air conditioners. “When the company finally had their applications stamped by all the departments, summer was over,” he recalled.
　　To create a smaller, cleaner, more efficient and services-oriented government, the country began to reform its administrative examination and approval system in 2001.
　　In 2001, the State Council set up a leading group for administrative examination and approval system reform. Since 2002, experts in such fields as economics, law and public administration have been invited to evaluate the necessity of administrative approval requirements item by item.
　　The experts finally reached a consensus that nearly 70 percent of existing administrative approval requirements could be slashed.
　　“After six rounds of reform, the goal has more or less been achieved,” said Yu Hui, Director of the Public Policy Research Department of the China Society of Economic Reform.
　　So far, the Chinese Government has abolished or adjusted approval requirements for 2,497 items, or 69.3 percent of the total, according to the State Council’s Administrative Examination and Approval System Reform Office, while local governments have abolished or adjusted requirements for 37,000 items, accounting for 68.2 percent of the total.
　　Through the reform, the government has reduced direct interference in economic ac- tivities, and let the market play a bigger role in allocating economic resources; meanwhile, the government has strengthened macroeconomic control and market regulation, and attached more importance to social management and public service, said officials in charge of the reform.
　　However, both officials and experts admitted that some administrative approval requirements are still unnecessary and some approval procedures are still prolonged and inefficient.
　　Yu believes though a majority of existing administrative approval items have been scratched off, the underlying structure of the system remains intact. He said that some controversial administrative approval requirements do not have clear legal basis.
　　In the future, the government will continue to rescind or adjust administrative approval items according to a principle of reducing and delegating whatever is necessary, said a principal official of the State Council’s Administrative Examination and Approval System Reform Office in an interview with Xinhua News Agency.
　　The government will also strictly examine newly established approval items and promote the use of an electronic supervision system for administrative approval so as to promote transparency, said the official.
　　Previously, some local governments established requirements without legislative consent. The State Council said in the October 10 statement that new administrative approval requirements can only be set up in accordance with the law and legislative procedures.
　　On the flip side, removal of administrative approval requirements may create a “vacuum of supervision,” the statement said, pledging more effective post-event supervision will be put into place.
　　The State Council has designated south China’s Guangdong Province as a pilot region for the administrative examination and approval system reform during the 12th FiveYear Plan period (2011-15).
　　During the trial, several items in the region that were previously covered in the system will undergo simplified procedures concerning administrative examination and approval.