Non-administrative approvals, meaning approval items that are not based on laws, regulations or decisions of the State Council, will become a thing of the past, Premier Li Keqiang said at the executive meeting on May 6.

Such approvals, listed as items that are not regulated by law, are often referred to as the grey area of administration.

The meeting decided to completely cancel non-administrative approvals, with 49 abolished and 20 turned into administrative approvals. Those which do not involve the public will be regulated by a list of powers of the government bodies.

Premier Li said that for a long time, some local authorities have taken advantage of administrative approval to “gain unjust interests.”

“This way, the duty boundaries of the government and market were mixed up, thus making the economic system chaotic,” he said, adding that the responsibility of today’s government should only be as a good supervisor and serving the public well, and the rest concerns the market.

Efforts have been done to cut non-administrative approvals since last year. A total of 209 non-administrative approvals have been cancelled since the leadership took office in 2013.

The Premier also urged the early online publication of documents approved by the State Council, sending a clear message to the public that the government will never seek administrative approvals in a “disguised way.“

“We have canceled non-administrative approvals and formulated the list of powers with the aim of clarifying the limits of government powers,” said Premier Li.

“The government should behave in a fair and square way, and no more vagueness should be utilized in the boundaries of government duties.”