Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Super-ministries still on the agenda

At least that is what the Financial Times says today. Reorganizing the administration and streamlining the chains of command are on the agenda of the central government for quite some time, but opposing forces have been going against this attack on the traditional way of running the country. It sergeants, the political power brokers on a lower level, have no interest in this kind of transparency and the plans look like the "He loves you, he loves you not" dismantling of daisies.
I thought it was called off for the session of the National People's Congress (NPC) this year, but the FT seems to have different information.
One of the hot topics will be that ministries will no longer be able to run their own companies, now often the power basis of the more powerful ministries. Obvious questions: who is going to run those state-owned companies then? Will the central government get it their way?
My guess: in the end they will, but not yet. For the lower governments there is too much at stake and they might not oppose openly, but use some nice backstabbing.

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