Wednesday, March 12, 2008

China's new ministries

One of the major plans of this week at this year's National People's Congress is the installment of five super ministries, write many media. In what I understand that will mean a new layer for bureaucracy will be created, while the old 27 ministries more or less continue. That would be rather bad news.
A ministry for the environment is a nice gesture, but when it is not supported by real power, it does not mean that much. When powerful state-owned enterprises continue to play their power games through the old ministries, there is very little the new supremo's can do. It would not only need super ministries but also a kind of supermen (or women) that can break the old mold. For the short term I remain pessimistic.

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