BEIJING — China will markedly streamline its administrative approval system for land and space planning amid efforts to improve the business environment and governance efficiency, the Ministry of Natural Resources said on Sept 20.

With red tape-cutting reforms on planning permission and land use approval, application materials will be significantly trimmed and approval time will be greatly reduced, Vice-Minister of Natural Resources Zhao Long told a news conference.

In the past, applicants needed to go through an overlapping review by different government departments to get approval for planning and land use, now the review and licensing processes are being unified to make things easier, he said.

Reforms of government institutions integrated authorities governing the planning of main functional areas, land use, and urban and rural areas into a unified body for national land and space planning, creating favorable conditions for the approval reform, Zhao said.

"The time needed for the review of space and land plans will be shortened to about six months from at least three years," he said, noting that the reform will benefit businesses and citizens and facilitate investment.

China will also delegate more power from the State Council to provincial-level governments, allowing them to have greater say in authorizing land and space planning.

Last week, Vice-Premier Han Zheng called for enhancing efforts to advance the national land and space planning to a higher level, stressing that the work must be promoted in a scientific way and put the people first.