16,000 civil servants laid off in 7 years
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-27 09:15

China laid off over 16,000 civil servants from 1996 to 2003, said Zhang Bolin, deputy chief of the CPC Central Committee's Organization Department and Minister of Personnel.

Zhang explained the current status of China's civil service in an article published in the latest issue of the Seeking Truth magazine, saying that the "iron rice bowls" (guaranteed job security) of civil servants had been broken.

In China, members of the civil service need to take an exam to qualify. All government organs have commenced open recruitment from the public through exams.

The Central Government's Party and governmental organs have employed 31,000 people since 1994, and over 630,000 people have become civil servants through exams in all parts of China since 2000.

As the system of competition for posts has become popular, it has also been introduced in the promotion of civil servants. This has led to the promotion of outstanding staff. From 2000 through 2004, 645,000 people were promoted to upper management positions through this system.

Training for civil servants is arranged regularly in a systematic way. Since 1994, more than 20 million civil servants participated in various training programs nationwide, which further enhanced the quality of civil servants.

The system of reward and punishment functions effectively, rewarding civil servants for remarkable performances and penalizing those who violate discipline. This system has created a clean and honest administration of civil servants, Zhang said.