Luan Jingdong, a professor of economics with Anhui Agricultural University, teaches a class for 270 village officials from the Yeji experimental zone and Huoqiu county, on September 4, 2008. Photo: IC

The county of Yeji, East China's Anhui Province, rose to fame overnight after it was chosen to be a State-level experimental zone nearly two decades ago.

A total of 11 ministries and the Anhui provincial government approved Yeji and Maoji counties, which are 200 kilometers away from each other, for systematic administrative reforms in the 1990s.

As the "west gate" of Anhui, Yeji administers three townships in the city of Lu'an and received the pilot zone honor during a period of the great passion for reform.

During the past two decades, the media spotlight had gradually faded from the two special zones. Setbacks and failures began emerging.

Although the experiment is ongoing, observers and experts have started to reexamine the lessons of this grass-roots experiment under the backdrop of a new round of national reforms expected to be unveiled in the ongoing Third Plenary Session of the 18th Communist Party of China Central Committee in Beijing.

Enthusiastic trial

Yeji was the first region in Anhui to streamline government agencies in a bid to improve efficiency, said Zhou Gulian, then-head of the provincial commission for economic restructuring who oversaw the experiment.

Yeji merged 72 government departments into 17. For example, the countryside development bureau merged 10 government agencies including agricultural, forestry and water resources departments to provide an integrated service.

The streamlining helped avoid factional fighting, coordinate relevant parties and increase efficiency, said Zhang Chengmin, then-director of the bureau.

The Yeji experiment became a prelude to government restructuring in various local governments in subsequent years, eventually reaching the State-level when the problem-ridden Ministry of Railways was merged into the Ministry of Transport in March this year.

Personnel reform was also undertaken in Maoji during the years. Government officials were hired through several rounds of two-way selections and competition, with an elimination system based on performance.

This business-style management reportedly encouraged officials to take their responsibilities more seriously, making them more enthusiastic about innovative work methods.

Stepping back

This was not the first time for Anhui to lead the country in reform. The village of Xiaogang kicked off the rural land reform in 1978, an innovation that later led to the era of reform and opening-up.

However, administrative reform in the two counties has had a bumpier ride than Xiaogang. Over the last few years, some once-merged departments have split off to become independent again with some new ones founded, and the number of public service workers expanded from 358 in 1999 to 579 today.

Money was an important factor during the process, Zhou explained. Streamlining did result in smaller government and better efficiency, but troubles emerged when the central government in recent years began allocating more funds to lower-level authorities. Time and time again, Yeji found its funding application rejected simply because it did not check the right box, without a corresponding agency to match the appropriate upper-level agency.

This lack of higher level policy support, especially in the fiscal and taxation areas, obstructed grass-roots reform, Zhou said, as the two zones gradually became "forgotten."

The seemingly spruced-up human resources also turned stagnant as the Maoji method prevented officials from transferring their positions and skills to other counties and regions. Government employees in the two zones soon found themselves suffering from a confusing employment status and inconsistent salary.

Compared with economic reform, administrative reform is a more arduous task, said Chi Fulin, director of the Haikou-based China Institute for Reform and Development.

"Each round of administrative system reform is virtually the adjustment of power patterns, rather than an increase or reduction in the number of institutions and staff on the surface," he said.

Finding ways

The reversal for the two Anhui experimental zones is an example of the complexity and difficulty of meaningful administrative reform. But by wading into "deep waters," the experimental zones have also helped chart the course of future reforms.

There are high expectations among observers for deeper reforms and a service-oriented, clean and frugal government. Over the last 35 years of reform and opening-up, China has experienced six rounds of administrative reforms, during which the number of ministries and commissions under China's central government, the State Council, has been cut by half.

The core aim of institutional restructuring is to reduce government interference in the market, said Wang Yukai, a professor of administrative reform at the Chinese Academy of Governance in Beijing, and to "deprive" some groups of their vested interests.

Great efforts have been made to reform administrative systems, Wang told the Global Times, but the fundamental problems haven't been solved: Excessive, lazy or mediocre governance that not only damages trust between the public and government, but also curbs local economic and social development.

"It's wrong to believe that the bigger the government agency is, the better it will be," he said.

To improve efficiency, the Chinese government has simplified some review and approval procedures in the hope of reducing its excessive intervention in market activities.

The State Council approved revisions to an investment list at a meeting on September 25, allowing projects with sufficient market activity and in line with structural adjustment to report only to related authorities, rather than requiring government approval.

The meeting exempted another 75 items from central government approval, taking the total number of exempted items to 221 since the new leadership assumed office in March.

Administrative reform was also listed as a priority in the "383" reform plan, a report proposed by the Development Research Center of the State Council recently as a reference for top authorities, which has received wide public attention.

The plan stressed that administrative approvals should be substantially reduced. It even proposed that projects can be perceived as proved if the government missed the deadline, and that the approval process of non-confidential projects should be published online for public supervision.

Yun Jie, director of the administration research department at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, stressed the importance of implementation, especially local governments' implementation. "It's easy to work out a reform plan, but effectively implementing it will be tough," he said.

In Shanghai's new free-trade zone, a company needs four days to get registered, while it was 29 days before.

Local reforms might encounter setbacks, but as long as they helped nurture an efficient, clean and service-oriented government, they were worth a shot, said Cheng Biding, vice president of the Chinese Society of Regional Economy.

Global Times - Xinhua