The Communist Party of China’s recent conference focuses on ministry-level departmental reform. This is an important field of reform concerning the labor distribution among different authorities as well as limiting power, says an editorial in the 21st Century Business Herald. Excerpts:

In the past 10 years, with the constant growth of the economy, the powers of different ministries are also expanding fast. The powers of different ministries and even departments of the same ministry overlap. The issues of food safety and environmental protection are two outstanding examples of the low efficiency of some authorities.

The most pressing challenge for the ministry-level departmental reform is to reduce ministries’ interference with the operation of markets. This includes some ministry-level departments such as the development and reform commissions of various levels and powerful authorities, or even State-owned enterprises in the fields of finance and energy resources.

China will not succeed in transforming its economic growth model if it fails to implement ministry-level departmental reforms.

In fields related to people’s livelihood, the crux of the reform is not to restrict the exercise of powers but to strengthen supervision and improve authorities’ efficiency. If the oversight of food safety is completely passed to local grass-root supervisors, the public will be concerned that the local supervisors are more likely to be abducted by local food enterprises, which are probably important contributors to local economic growth.

There must be different strategies for this reform in different fields. It is right to be cautious and prudent to carry out the reform to ensure the stability of the Chinese economy. But however difficult the reform is, because it restrains the power of some powerful authorities, China has to push the envelope.