Premier Li Keqiang urged a nationwide reform of oversight of markets, as a recent teleconference was held, and called for the reduction of unnecessary interference in normal business operations.

A national conference was held on Sept 21 to discuss how to push forward the reform, which calls for random inspections by randomly selecting law enforcement officers or inspectors, and requires the prompt release of results.

The move is key to streamline administration, transform the functions of the government, improve performance and reduce corporate costs and rent-seeking, the Premier said in a written instruction.

At the conference, Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli asked to formulate an inventory regarding the inspectors and inspected items, expand the scope of random checks for administrative and law enforcement for market supervision, and entrenching support in information sharing and supervision.

Zhang stressed that within the year, 70 percent of law enforcement checking will be conducted randomly during market supervision and that more than 50 percent of the other administrative law enforcement will be random. By the end of next year, both should be fully covered.

At local levels, the city of Zhengzhou, in Central China’s Henan province, plans to draft a local list for random inspection by November and formulate detailed rules for implementation by December, the city’s vice-mayor Sun Jinxian said at the meeting.

North China’s Tianjin municipality launched a joint supervision system in 2015, which randomly selects enterprises to be inspected, as well as law enforcement inspectors.

Northwest China’s Shaanxi province will carry out joint inspections conducted by multiple departments, so as to avoid duplicated law enforcement or inspections.

Wang Yukai, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Governance, said the reform serves as a major supervision approach after a set of administrative approvals are streamlined. It reflects the transformation of the government’s market regulatory functions, which can remarkably reduce enterprises’ burdens and effectively eliminate the opportunity for corruption or rent-seeking.