BEIJING — Vice-Premier Han Zheng on May 7 called for meticulous, concrete efforts to advance institutional reform of the State Council in a bid to establish law-based government administration with well-defined functions and duties.

Han, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks at a State Council meeting on advancing the reform.

Reform has been carried out in an orderly way, and departments of the State Council have been working with each other and have basically achieved the goals for the initial stage, Han said.

He stressed the efforts to make regulations on functions and duties, internal bodies, and staffing of new institutions, saying priority should be given to defining clearly the functions and duties for new departments.

Major differences should be handled in a coordinated way, with the aim of improving the overall efficiency of the government by clarifying functions of different departments, Han said.

Han said ideological and political work should be carried out throughout the reform, calling on officials to support and advance the reform with action and make contributions to institutional reform and economic and social development.