Administrative information systems of all State Council departments will be connected to a unified national government information sharing platform by the end of June 2018, according to a timetable set by Premier Li Keqiang.

The decision was made during a teleconference on June 13, in a bid to tackle the problem of “information isolation”, which drags down administration efficiency and is inconvenient.

As the Premier put it, the ongoing reform to further streamline administrative approval, delegate power to lower-level government, and improve regulation and services is a self-revolution by the government, as well as a decisive policy to cut unnecessary certifications and optimize administrative services.

More than 80 percent of the nation’s information data resource now scatters in government departments at all levels.

This is a huge waste as all the isolated information could have been shared to bring much more convenience to the people if government departments coordinated to connect their data pool.

The Premier has called for efforts to break down the walls among data pools for three years but it wasn’t until this teleconference that a timetable was finally decided.

Due to isolated information among government departments, such as household registration, employment, birth and marital status, people were often required to submit unnecessary certifications for some administrative approvals.

Such dilemmas not only caused inconvenience but also lowered government department efficiency.

At the teleconference, Premier Li said that efforts should be made to utilize the unexploited data resources of government departments and public institutions.

According to some experts, in the era of big data, the “Internet Plus administrative service” initiative promoted by the government is a perfect method to solve the problem of isolated information.

The Premier also stressed streamlining procedures so that people can get things done online or in government offices within a short period of time.

Offering convenience for people’s lives is one of the key jobs of this year’s government reform and government at all levels should make efforts to provide people with efficient, convenient, fair and available public services, he said.