Title of the Paper: Millennium Development Goals and Public. Chinese Academy of Personnel Science

Transcription

1 Country: The People s Republic of China Title of the Paper: Millennium Development Goals and Public Administration Reform of China Author: Mr. Li Keshi Deputy Director-General Chinese Academy of Personnel Science Ministry of Personnel The People s Republic of China Mailing Address: Room. 1508, No. 5, Yuhuili, Chaoyang District, Beijing , P.R.China Telephone: Fax: Logistic Support Needed: Overhead Projector for Microsoft PowerPoint 1

2 Abstract Keywords: Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Public Administration This paper discusses the efforts made by Chinese government and what has been achieved in attaining MDGs, and the development direction of administration capacity building of Chinese government in attaining MDGs. The first part is a general description of the progress achieved by China in attaining MDGs. The second part is the Guarantee and Support Provided by Chinese Policies on Public Administration for the Achievement of MDGs. The last part is the measures and methods that Chinese government adopted to strengthen the administration capacity building and make greater contributions to the complete realization of MDGs. 2

3 Millennium Development Goals and Public Administration Reform of China Since the adoption of the Millennium Declaration at the September 2000 United Nations Summit and the subsequent implementation of the Practical Plan to Achieve the MDGs, Chinese government has attached great importance and active response on it. 1. China s Progress in Attaining the MDGs While actively promoting coordinated regional development, the Chinese government has adopted various strategies for regional development which include the development of the western region, the revitalization of the old industrial bases in northeast China and other places, the promotion of the rise of the central region and the encouragement of faster development in the eastern region. These strategies have been crafted in light of the unique features of various regions and designed to fully tap their comparative advantages. While they have different priorities for different regions, they are also closely interrelated. They conform to the requirements of well-planned and coordinated development and can fully mobilize the initiatives of various 3

4 regions. They can help boost interaction, complementation and common development among the eastern, central and western regions. In eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, the Chinese government has implemented a large-scale, sustained and highly effective program for poverty reduction and development. After over 20 years of hard work, more than 200 million poverty-stricken rural people now have adequate food and clothing 1. The number of rural people in extreme poverty fell from 250 million in 1978 to 26.1 million at the end of At the same time, there are million rural low-income people, or 5.3 percent of the total rural population, whose living conditions are still precarious even though they have preliminarily solved their food and clothing problems 2. China will continue to adhere to the principle of people-oriented and strive for comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable development, enabling all poverty-stricken people to have adequate food and clothing in the next 10 years. Eradicating poverty in a big country with a population of 1.3 billion itself is a major contribution to the cause of poverty reduction worldwide 1. Regarding the popularization of primary education, China s primary school enrollment among school-age children reached percent in Specifically, the rate was percent for boys and percent for girls. The primary school dropout rate was 0.34 percent. In particular, the rate for girls was 0.36 percent. In addition, the consolidated five year 4

5 average for primary school attendance was 98.8 percent, or the same level as the previous year. The percent of primary school graduates continuing to attend middle schools was 97.9 percent, which was 0.88 percentage points higher than in the previous year 3. Over 90 percent of the populated areas across the country have largely popularized 9-year compulsory education 4. Regarding the achievement of gender equality and the protection of the rights and interests of women and children, Chinese women now can participate in the administration of the country on an equal footing. Right now, 7 of the party and state leaders, 15 of the ministers and vice ministers of the 28 ministries and commissions of the State Council, and more than 20 percent of the deputies to the National People s Congress are women. While more than 100 million rural women have learned one or two new agricultural techniques, urban women account for 37.9 percent of all those employed in the urban areas. Health care covers 86 percent of women who are pregnant and delivering children; the hospital delivery rate has reached 78.8 percent, and the mortality rate for pregnant women and those in delivery as well as the death rate for infants and children under five have all been on the decline 5. China has prioritized the establishment of a national disease prevention and control system and a medical rescue system for public health emergency as part of its efforts to expedite the development of 5

6 public health undertakings. It has established 1,410 county-level and 250 provincial disease prevention and control centers, and 290 emergency relief centers. In the meantime, it has strengthened the prevention and treatment of major diseases and is pushing forward pilot programs on a new rural cooperative medical service. In protecting resources and the environment and improving the ecosystem, China has intensified efforts in farmland protection and made fresh progress in harnessing pollution in major river systems and adjacent regions 6. Since 2000, a total of 15,000 enterprises have been closed down nationwide that were noted for high resource consumption and pollution. The COD (chemical oxygen demand) of industrial wastewater discharged in 2004 was 27.7 percent lower than in The sewage treatment rate rose from 32 percent in 1999 to the present 45 percent. Water-saving agricultural irrigation now saves more than 30 billion tons of water a year. The rate of repeated use of water in industry has risen from 55 percent in 1998 to the present 62 percent 7. In promoting global cooperation for development, China has continuously expanded trade links and mutual investment with developing countries. The Chinese government has provided donation for the African Development Fund, the Asian Development Fund and other projects to promote South-South cooperation, and has done all it can to gradually increase development aid to poor countries. 6

7 2. The Guarantee and Support Provided by Chinese Policies on Public Administration for Attaining MDGs Prior to the 19 th century, people tended to take the possession of natural resources as a goal, but starting from the 20 th century, effective resource utilization became a much greater concern, as is evident in the great attention to human capital paid by the industrial and technological revolutions. Karl Marx believed that the degree of civilization in any society is determined by its social system and mode of production. This is also to say that the key to realize our aspirations depends on effective systems and policies. If effective public administration is the most important factor for the eradication of poverty and sustained development, public administration representing the common interests of human society is a fundamental force for the advance of global civilization. The achievements China has made to realize the MDGs can be attributed to a series of systemic arrangements and effective policy guarantees made by the Chinese government. They include: (1) Organizational and Institutional Guarantee Over the course of restructuring government institutions and adjusting their functions, the Chinese government has adjusted, strengthened and added special working institutions for poverty reduction, education, protection of the rights and interests of women and children, disease 7

8 control, environmental protection and international cooperation. It has also established relevant working systems and incorporated them into the basic government work agenda. (2) Legal System Guarantee In the last few years, China has enacted a number of laws and regulations, such as Administrative Procedure Law, Law on State Compensation, Administrative Reconsideration Law, Administrative Licensing Law and Civil Servant Law. Additionally, the central government and various government departments have created or improved more than 500 working systems. While controlling government behavior, these laws, regulations and systems also offer greater autonomy for the social life of ordinary people and more opportunities for their self-development. As a result, their life has become more colorful. (3) Personnel Policy Guarantee One of the major strategic measures taken by the Chinese government is to allow human resources to play a greater role in driving and promoting social development. The Ministry of Personnel has introduced many favorable policies to promote the development of the western region and the revitalization of the old industrial bases in northeast China. They include working out personnel plans, offering state financial subsidies to support personnel, improving benefits for experts, intensifying personnel training and encouraging human resources and 8

9 technology resources to flow to the underdeveloped regions. In January 2002, the Ministry of Personnel and the UNDP signed a three-year Project on Professional Human Resources Development and Management in Support of Western Region Development. The main purpose of the project was to provide personnel support and guarantee for the economic development of the western region through activities such as the Research of Strategic Policies for the Human Resources Development in the Western Region, the Capacity Building of the Core Civil Servants in the Western Region, the Continued Education of the Professional Technical Personnel in the Western Region and the Building of the Human Resources Market in the Western Region. By the end of 2004, the Ministry of Personnel had organized 22 overseas training inspections (9 in 2002, 5 in 2003, and 8 in 2004) for the director-general level and director level leaders of the personnel departments from 12 provinces and municipalities in the western region and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. In all, 329 people were dispatched to more than a dozen countries in Europe, America, Oceania and Asia to learn the role of their governments in promoting coordinated regional development and government policies and measures on developing human resources. They also wrote high-quality reports after these training inspections. In addition, 15 training courses were held in China, during which the in-depth discussions covered the development 9

10 of the tourist industry, economic management, environmental protection, modern livestock husbandry technologies and environmental protection technologies. A total of 35 foreign experts were invited to give lectures at the training courses. More than 1,000 people, including director-level civil servants, professional and technical personnel and human resources market management personnel from the western region participated in these training courses. Additionally, the Ministry of Personnel also held the International Symposium on the Strategies for Human Resources Development in China s Western Region in support for the implementation of the 10-Year Plan for Human Resources Development in the Western Region. At the symposium, experts were invited to discuss and revise the Consulting Report on Professional Human Resources Development and Management in Support of Western Region Development and provide international experience and strategic consulting for human resources development in the western region. In the meantime, the Ministry of Personnel has also worked hard to develop local human resources in rural areas so as to bring up a great number of local rural personnel who can be retained, supported and used. This has helped improve the basic competence of the labor force in the poverty-stricken regions. (4) Finance and Fund Guarantee The Chinese government has allocated special funds and worked out 10

11 preferential policies for organized, planned and large-scale poverty reduction-oriented development in rural areas across the country. During , the Chinese government established the fiscal poverty reduction fund and increased budgetary allocation to it each year. In all, it invested as much as billion yuan. It also issued discount loans for poverty reduction on a regular basis, which totaled billion yuan (peasant households pay 3 percent annual interest rate while the rest part of interest was covered by the central financing). At the same time, preferential policies were also worked out for poverty-stricken regions and rural households, exempting poor households from fulfilling quotas for state-purchased grains. The duration for using of poverty reduction loans was properly extended, mortgage and guarantee requirements were liberalized, and Agricultural Tax and Agricultural Specialty Tax were reduced or exempted. In a main policy to support poverty-stricken regions, the central government gradually intensified financial transfer payments to these regions, and the governments of the provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government also established a second-tier transfer payment system to provide additional financial support to these regions. The new enterprises established by the poverty-stricken counties and the enterprises established in the poverty-stricken regions by developed regions are exempted from paying income tax for three years. In addition, the 11

12 standards for construction and maintenance funds in reservoir areas were raised to solve the food and clothing problems of migrants from reservoir areas. The Chinese government has been increasing fiscal layouts to support agricultural production, agriculture operating expenses, operating expenses of culture, education, science and health care, and pension and relief funds for social welfare. The total amount of the above layouts was billion yuan in 2002, 24 times as the amount in 中国国家财政部分支出项目增长情况 BUDGETARY EXPENDITURE BY MAIN ITEM 单位 : 亿元 Unit: 100 million yuan 文教 科学 卫生事业费 Operating expenses for culture, education, science & health care 基本建设支出 Expenditure for capital construction 支援农村生产支出和各项农业事业费 Expenditure for supporting agricultural production and agriculture operating expenses 抚恤和社会福利救济费 Pension and relief funds for social welfare In recent years, China has continuously intensified support for poverty-stricken regions through infrastructure construction, industrial restructuring, environment improvement, and scientific and educational development in order to enhance the overall level of development in these regions. It has established and promoted the medical relief system and the 9 12

13 new rural cooperative medical service for poverty-stricken rural people, expedited projects to enable every village to be connected with highways and receive radio and television programs. This will greatly improve the development environment of poverty-stricken regions. 3. Strengthen the Administration Capacity Building and Contribute more to the Complete Realization of MDGs We have 10 years to go before the 2015 deadline. In order to fulfill the solemn commitment to the MDGs, the Chinese government will, on the basis of its achievements in reforming public administration, speed up the reform and construction so as to further enhance the government s administration capacity. (1) Continue to deepen the reform of government institutions. In keeping with the principle of streamlined, unified and efficient government and the requirements for the coordination of decision making, implementation and supervision, the government will improve its institutional structure and demarcation of functions, accelerate the reform of government institutions at township level by defining their functions rationally, streamlining their institutions and reducing fiscally-supported personnel. The reform will also actively and steadily promote the reform of public institutions, and standardize acts authorized by public 13

14 institutions. (2) Continue to change government functions. The government will further promote to separate governmental function from non-governmental functions, governments function from enterprises management, and governmental functions from asset management functions. One step is to solve the problem of government overstepping the bounds of its authority. This means that social affairs that should not be run by government must be left to enterprises, market and social organizations in such a way as allows social groups, industry associations, chambers of commerce and intermediary institutions to fully play their roles. The other step is to solve the problem of government failing to perform its roles, which means that the government must do a good job in running its own affairs and must operate in a coordinated and mandated way. The government should not derelict in its duty, because these affairs concern the basic livelihoods of ordinary people, public security, limited resources, special reputation and qualifications and other things. The third step is to pay more attention to social administration and public service where the government should allocate more financial, material and other public resources so as to promote the development of social undertakings and the building of a harmonious society. (3) Make innovations in government administration modes and work hard to build a service-oriented government. 14

15 The government should exercise administration through providing services and better serving the grassroots levels, enterprises and the general public. Administration resources should be integrated, the cost of administration should be reduced, and administrative efficiency and the quality of service should be enhanced. Public notification system and public hearing system should be improved so as to allow people to participate more broadly in public administration. Great efforts should be made to make government operations more open and more transparent so as to increase the public credibility of the government. (4) Strengthen the administrative enforcement capacity of government personnel and improve the work style of the government. The interests of the people must become the central consideration, and the administration must serve the people. While pragmatic work styles should be advocated, it is imperative to strictly enforce the Statistics Law and establish a scientific system for the appraisal of government performance and a system for comprehensively evaluating economic and social development. Formalism, exaggeration and cheating should be firmly rejected. No image project or performance project should be allowed to increase the public burden. The number of meetings and documents should be reduced and their style should be changed. Various inspections, comparisons and appraisals, and target-achieving activities must be strictly regulated and controlled. In addition, the education, 15

16 management and supervision of civil servants must be strengthened so as to build a civil servants team which is satisfactory to the people 6. Finally, I would like to put together two sentences in Premier Wen Jiabao s government work report and his speech at Harvard University in the United States as my concluding remarks. He said: The Chinese government and the Chinese people are willing to make unremitted efforts together with the people of all countries in the world to safeguard and promote the peace, development and progress of mankind 6. Let us work together to promote the progress and development of human civilization with wisdom and strength. 8 Thank you, Mr. President! Thank you, delegates! 16

17 About the Author Mr. Li Keshi 51 years old, graduated from Beijing Industry and Business Institute major in Administration Taking the positions of Deputy Director-General (Vice President) of Chinese Academy of Personnel Science, Director of China Talent Research Association Main publications: "Research on Formation of China Administration System", "Objective Nature of Ding Xiaoping's Theory", "The Characteristics of Talents Development in Three Forces Construction" 17

18 1 Wen Jiabo: Speech at the Global Conference on Scaling up Poverty Reduction initiated by the World Bank, Xinhuanet, Shanghai, May 26, 2004 (Reported by Zhu Zhongliang, Liu Dongkai and Wu Jing) 2 China National Bureau of Statistics: Bulletin on the Monitoring of China s Rural Poverty in Bulletin on the Development of National Educational Undertakings in China Education and Scientific Research Network: Reform and Development of China s Education 5 Xinhuanet: A Proud Test Paper for China s Women s Movement, August 21, Wen Jiabao: Government Work Report in 2005 (Xinhuanet, March 14, 2005) 7 Shen Huaren: Inspection Report on the Implementation of the Law on the Prevention and Control of Water Pollution made by the enforcement inspection group of the Standing Committee of the National People s Congress, June 29, Wen Jiabao: Speech at Harvard University entitled Turning Your Eyes to China (Reported by Lu Hong and He Hongze of the People s Daily, December 10, 2004) 9 Financial data of the Ministry of Finance of the People s Republic of China ( 18