Premier Li Keqiang shared his opinions and clarified the current reform on streamlining administration, delegating power, strengthening regulation and improving service in the first half of this year.

Consistent efforts in administrative reform

Premier Li discussed the ongoing administrative reform in China during the opening ceremony of the annual meeting of Summer Davos on June 27.

He called for further promotion of the reform of streamlining administration, delegating power, strengthening regulation and improving services. And he also said China should speed up the transformation of government functions to delegate powers to society and the market, create a fairer market environment and establish an innovation-friendly mechanism.

Cancel outdated documents in a timely manner

Premier Li made comments during an executive meeting of the State Council on June 15 that a number of grassroots governments and departments are unwilling to cut red tape by refusing to adopt the newly released documents and cancel outdated ones. Such practices both hinder administrative reform and cause inconvenience to people.

And on the same day, the State Council decided to announce canceling 506 documents issued by the cabinet.

Employment not restrained by vocational qualification license

Premier Li said at the State Council executive meeting on June 1 that burdensome vocational qualification licenses have largely hampered mass entrepreneurship. The reason behind this phenomenon is the “fees” involved in acquiring the licenses, which create profits for certain departments.

“We will strictly regulate vocational qualification licensing and establish a regulation system according to law. And we will lift the burden of excessive licenses for entrepreneurs, employers and job-seekers,” the Premier added.

The meeting decided to cancel another 47 vocational qualification licenses to further reduce the barrier for employment and entrepreneurship.

Streamlined government functions stressed

As Premier Li inspected the citizens’ service center in Shiyan city of Hubei province on May 23, he said affairs halls and service centers have been set up in every region of China, and their functions should be performed with one-stop approval procedure processed at one service window. Further procedures for citizens and enterprises should be prohibited, the Premier emphasized.

Administrative streamlining leading to prosperity

Premier Li said at a May 9 telecommunication conference on streamlining administration that the government will speed up the transformation of government functions, streamline administrations and provide more conveniences for people. And China will further promote mass entrepreneurship and innovation, accelerate the development of the new economy and create new growth engines to bring vitality to the economy.

Administrative reform is self-revolution

Premier Li said at a May 9 telecommunication conference that the government should cut its power and carry out a supervision reform to bring more vitality to the market and creativity to society. “Reform to streamline administration, combine power delegation with enhanced supervision and optimized services is a self-revolution and self-sacrifice for government itself,” said the Premier.

Less social security burden on individuals, enterprises

Premier Li said on March 16 at a news conference after the conclusion of the annual legislative session that there is still room for China to reduce the burden on individuals and enterprises by cutting their payment to social security funds.

The Premier was referring to the social security package, which includes pension insurance, occupational injury insurance, medical insurance, birth insurance and unemployment insurance, as well as housing provident funds.

A journalist raised a question during the news conference concerning how to reduce the payment to the social security funds. The Premier answered that more autonomy can be given to local governments so that they can cut the required contribution rate to social security funds in accordance with their own conditions. The general principle is to reduce the burden on enterprises and enable employees to get more cash.

‘No pain no gain’ during power delegation

When a journalist asked the Premier on March 16 at a news conference what is the next step for administrative streamlining and delegating power, the Premier answered that the Chinese government will forge ahead to resolve any problem it comes across during the administrative reform. “Cutting power will definitely hurt the interests of related departments, but the pain will lead to convenience for our people. This year, we plan to further remove approval and verification items and simplify the related procedures.”