Ministry: Stronger supervision boosts government transparency

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With the improvement of the system of law-based government construction, administrative power has been put under stronger restrictions and supervision, making the government more open and transparent in its work, the Ministry of Justice said.

In December 2015, the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council released a document called Implementation of the Outline on Building a Law-based Government, aiming to basically finish creating an open, efficient, honest and law-abiding government with scientific functions, strict law enforcement and statutory rights and responsibilities by this year.

To improve the quality and efficiency of major administrative decisions, the State Council released a regulation in April last year to include public participation, expert evaluation, risk assessment, reviews of legality and collective discussion in legal procedures for major administrative decisions for sectors such as public services, market supervision, social management and environmental protection.

The government information disclosure system has also been improved, with decisions, the implementation of measures, management, services and results of efforts publicized, which will make it easier for the public to obtain government information and supervise its work, the ministry said.

Governments at all levels have also strengthened supervision of law enforcement departments to promote the standardization of administrative law enforcement and prevent and correct inaction and disorderly conduct.

From 2015 to the end of last year, organs designed to review complaints about administrative decisions, such as the handing out of traffic tickets, accepted 921,000 complaints nationwide. Nearly 70 percent of cases were settled either after mediation or after organs corrected administrative errors.

The reform is part of efforts to construct a law-based government, through which progress in optimizing the market and creating a law-based business environment has been made. According to the World Bank's annual global ranking of business environments, China rose from 78th place in 2018 to 31st place this year.

Over the past five years, governments at all levels have made great efforts to streamline administration, delegate more power and upgrade their services, the ministry said.

All items requiring nonadministrative review and approval were canceled, and the number of items requiring administrative examination by departments under the State Council, including company taxes and personnel rules, has been cut by over 40 percent. The number of industrial production licenses required has been reduced by a third, and the number of new administrative examinations has become more strictly controlled.

The implementation of a system integrating multiple licenses into one license in the business sector has effectively reduced costs for enterprises, it said.

The processing time required to handle matters such as starting a new enterprise or registering real estate has been more than halved, and over 1,000 types of administrative fees required by central and provincial governments have been canceled, reduced or covered by exemptions.

In 2018, Shanghai set up a pilot program in its Huangpu district to offer the public one platform on which all government affairs can be resolved. The platform now covers 187 industries, allowing users to pass through the whole process from enterprise registration to post-approval.

The district's intelligent online service system offers users online consultation, pre-examination and remote guidance services in a quarter of the time they used to take, and people can use the system to complete nearly 93 percent of their government affairs.

The number of market entities in China has reached over 110 million, and the reform has greatly stimulated market vitality and creativity, the ministry said.