Departments and ministries under the State Council, China’s cabinet, have responded to a series of public concerns in the past week on agricultural modernization, civil service examinations, gas storage facility pricing and the quality of online trading goods.

The State Council recently issued a five-year plan for strategic agricultural modernization (2016-20) and according to Minister of Agriculture Han Changfu, the plan has clearly defined the importance of agricultural modernization.

The sector has a solid basis for modernization and is entering a development stage, Han said.

According to the plan, by 2020 food security will be effectively guaranteed, the quality and efficiency of the agricultural product supply system will be greatly increased, the sector’s international competitiveness will be further enhanced and rural residents’ livelihood will be improved.

Civil service examination applications for central government organizations, and subordinate agencies, will be stopped on Oct 24, 2017.

Although civil service posts are popular, there are still some posts that only a few, or even no, candidates applied for.

The State Administration of Civil Service has recently issued an announcement to the public, which summarizes the posts attracting few, or no qualified, candidates.

The administration reminds applicants to rationally choose posts.

It also reminds applicants to avoid peak times of application (often, just days before the deadline), in order to boost their chances of acceptance.

The National Development and Reform Commission issued an announcement to local departments and reform commissions, commodity price bureaus and petroleum and petrochemical companies to specify the pricing policy for gas storage facilities.

According to the NDRC, the gas storage price will be determined through negotiation of supply and demand, and urban gas companies are encouraged to invest in the construction of gas storage facilities.

The price of gas will be established through market competition.

The NDRC also requires related authorities and enterprises in local areas to jointly strive to guarantee stable operation of the gas market, enhance communication and negotiation of pricing as well as maintain market order and price supervision.

The State Administration for Industry and Commerce in 2016 launched online trading commodity quality inspections.

According to officials of the administration, it pays great attention to quality supervision of commodities, including online trading commodities.

Quality inspection of goods traded online this time is routine for the administration’s market supervision department to protect consumers’ legal rights and interests.

The administration has launched quality inspections on goods trading on major e-business platforms in five provinces and regions, including Beijing, Shanghai, Zhejiang and the Inner Mongolia autonomous region.