New ecological environment ministry is a milestone

As part of China's institutional reform, the establishment of a new ministry of ecological environment is a milestone to achieve the country's modernization and social development, a senior official said on Saturday.

"Together with related duties of the other six departments, all the previous functions of the Ministry of Environmental Protection will remain. And the newly formed Ministry of Ecological Environment will better serve the country's ecological environment protection and construction work," Li Ganjie, minister of environmental protection, said at a news conference.

The institutional reform plan of the State Council, targeting a better-structured, more efficient and service-oriented government, was passed during the ongoing session of the National People's Congress on Saturday.

It is China's biggest government reshuffle in years, under which the Ministry of Ecological Environment will be established. In addition to the original responsibilities of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the new body also will shoulder part of the responsibilities that now belong to six government departments, all of which are related to the environment.

The current responsibilities of the National Development and Reform Commission, or the country's top economic planner, on tackling climate change and emission reduction also will be transferred to the new environmental body.

The new department also will be responsible for dealing with marine pollution, currently overseen by the State Oceanic Administration, and agricultural pollution from non-point sources, currently dealt with by the Ministry of Agriculture, according to the plan.

Li said the reform is people-oriented and will be an historic move to further promote the construction and management of China's eco-environmental system.

"President Xi Jinping has expressed his thoughts on the country's ecological civilization goals and emphasized the importance of the overall management of departments in charge of mountains, rivers, water, forests and grassland," Li said.

He pointed out two major obstacles in the previous institutional management system – difficulty of responsible judgment due to the overlapping duties among different departments, and blunted supervision power, as some supervisors also are in charge of management.

"Under the reform, such problems will no longer exist, and supervision power will be well guaranteed," Li said. "We should take a chance on institutional reform, making further efforts to do better work."