Decision of the First Session of the 13th National People's Congress on the Institutional Reform Plan of the State Council
Decision of the First Session of the 13th National People's Congress on the Institutional Reform Plan of the State Council
Decision of the First Session of the 13th National People's Congress on the Institutional Reform Plan of the State Council
March 17, 2018
(Adopted at the First Session of the 13th National People's Congress on March 17, 2018)
The Institutional Reform Plan of the State Council was delivered by State Councilor Wang Yong as authorized by the State Council and was deliberated and approved at the First Session of the 13th National People's Congress.
The session calls for the State Council to make thorough arrangements to accomplish the institutional reform of the State Council under the centralized and unified leadership of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Where implementing the institutional reform plan requires the formulation or updating of relevant laws, the legislative procedures shall be activated in due time, with relevant drafts submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress for deliberation according to the law.
Institutional Reform Plan of the State Council
In light of arrangements made at the 19th CPC National Congress and the third plenary session of the 19th Central Committee, the general requirement for deepening reform of Party and state institutions is to fully implement the guidelines proposed at the 19th CPC National Congress, follow the guidance of Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, the Theory of Three Represents, the Scientific Outlook on Development, and Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. The reform shall also adapt to the needs of the development of socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era, uphold the underlying principle of pursuing progress while ensuring stability, keep the reform in the right direction, take a people-centered approach and adhere to law-based governance. To carry out the reform, it is essential to focus on strengthening the Party's overall leadership, be aimed at modernizing the state governance system and capacity, and make progress first in optimizing functions of the Party and state institutions for better coordination and higher efficiency, for the purpose of reforming the institutional structure, optimizing allocation of functions, deepening the shift in functions, manners and work style and boosting efficiency and efficacy, thus providing a robust institutional guarantee for building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, embarking on a new journey to build a modern socialist country in all aspects and realizing the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation.
To deepen the institutional reform of the State Council, efforts shall focus on transforming governmental functions, unwaveringly eliminating institutional drawbacks that prevent the market from playing a decisive role in allocation of resources and enabling the government to better play its role, promoting high-quality development, forming a modernized economic system, strengthening and improving governmental functions in respect of economic regulation, market supervision, social management, public service, and eco-environmental protection, pushing for adjusted and optimized institutional functions in major fields and key processes in consideration of conditions and practical demands in the new era, in a bid to establish a government governance system featuring explicit functions and duties and law-based administration, enhance executive force of the government and build a service-oriented government to satisfy the needs of the people.
The detailed plan for the institutional reform of the State Council is discussed as follows.
I. Adjustments to the Departments under the State Council
1. The Ministry of Natural Resources will be established. Certain duties of various departments, including the duties of the Ministry of Land and Resources, duties of the National Development and Reform Commission to organize the compilation of the planning for main functional areas, administrative duties of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development in regard to urban and rural planning, administrative duties of the Ministry of Water Resources in regard to investigations into water resources and registration of confirmed rights, administrative duties of the Ministry of Agriculture in regard to investigations into grassland resources and registration of confirmed rights, administrative duties of the State Forestry Administration in regard to investigations into forests, wetlands and other resources and registration of confirmed rights, duties of the State Oceanic Administration and duties of the National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geoinformation, will be integrated and brought under the proposed Ministry of Natural Resources as a department of the State Council. The Ministry of Natural Resources will retain the signboard of the State Oceanic Administration.
The Ministry of Land and Resources, the State Oceanic Administration and the National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geoinformation will be dismantled.
2.
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