Simpler approvals for investment projects

State Council lays out timetable for quickening investment process

The State Council vowed to remove administrative approval procedures on investment projects, and the power to approve some other projects will be delegated to lower-level government departments.

It will also shorten the procedure for approving projects, according to a statement about the meeting on Monday, which newly elected Premier Li Keqiang presided over.

The State Council also plans to reduce the approval procedure and to reform eight other procedures, including those involving projects related to production and social affairs.

The council asked government departments to work out a timetable for the plan, according to the statement on Monday.

The plan to remove administrative approval items will be a major breakthrough for the State Council's institutional reform.

It released 72 specific tasks of the State Council's reform plan, which outlined the related departments and deadlines.

At the meeting, the State Council discussed and approved the regulations related to the main responsibilities, the internal bodies and personnel for the newly established General Administration of Food and Drugs and the State Railway Administration.

During the reform process, the total number of personnel and leaders of the two departments should be strictly limited, it said.

The State Council asked other newly established and restructured departments to complete related regulations for the reform.

"The government restructuring includes streamlining administration and delegate institutions and public servants. But the ultimate purpose is enhancing the government's service quality and work efficiency. The restructuring is reasonable only when it's in line with this direction," Li Jiaxiang, head of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, told China Daily.

He added that healthy economic development will be the biggest challenge for the new leadership of the world's second-largest economy.

"The new leadership needs to develop China's economy well amid world uncertainties. That's the fundamental and most important work for building a well-off society in 2020," Li Jiaxiang said.

"Premier Li Keqiang is very down-to-earth, pragmatic and easy-going. He is familiar with different work fields and very good at listening to different opinions. He is also very considerate and cares about others, therefore, he is a premier with very high prestige," he said.