China to cut number of central government employees by 5%

CHINA will cut the number of positions in central government departments by 5 per cent in the biggest administrative shakeup in decades, as President Xi Jinping presses forward with his efforts to streamline the bureaucracy.

The jobs will be redistributed in strategically important areas, according to a government reform plan unveiled at the annual National People’s Congress meeting on Tuesday (Mar 7).

As part of the revamp, China plans to restructure its Ministry of Science and Technology. The objective is to “better allocate resources to overcome challenges in key and core technologies, and move faster towards greater self-reliance in science and technology,” the official Xinhua News Agency said. The drive follows US moves to cut the Asian nation off from advanced chip technology.

Xi has made building a more efficient government one of the hallmarks of his decade in power. Also on Tuesday, China announced plans to strengthen oversight of its US$60 trillion financial system by setting up an enlarged national regulator while streamlining operations at the central bank. Beijing will also establish a national bureau to manage and police data resources.

This shakeup is the biggest since 1998, when the central government and state-owned enterprises were reorganised. It’s also slightly bigger than one Xi authored in 2018, when the headcount in the central level of government was trimmed by 713 positions, or 3.1 per cent of the total.

In 2015, Xi said that the number of army personnel would be slashed by 300,000, the largest reduction since 1997.

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Among other changes made to the government this year:

• The National Health Commission, the top health regulator, will cede functions related to drafting policies to deal with an ageing population to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, as part of efforts to develop a senior care industry for an increasingly greying population.
• China moved the National Intellectual Property Administration up in the government hierarchy so that it’s directly overseen by the State Council, the cabinet.
• The National Public Complaints and Proposals Administration, an official channel for the public to voice grievances, was put under direct management of the State Council, a change the government said would “better protect people’s fundamental interests.”

BLOOMBERG