China to make greater efforts for policy implementation to bolster economic recovery and growth

BEIJING, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- At a State Council Executive Meeting held on Wednesday, Premier Li Keqiang heard a report on the ninth round of State Council's accountability inspection. He urged greater efforts for policy implementation to bolster the recovery and growth of the economy.

The meeting noted the recent ninth round of accountability inspection by the State Council in some localities. The inspection focused on supervising and inspecting local efforts in stabilizing economic performance and meeting people's basic needs, and helped resolve a set of difficulties various localities faced.

It was conducted mainly through unannounced visits, which made the inspection more effective and lessened the burdens on primary-level governments.

Going forward, the list of identified problems will be sent to related localities and departments to make rectification and forestall similar occurrences.

The taskforces that supervise and assist efforts for stabilizing overall economic performance should remain on duty to better align their work with the accountability inspection, and continue to coordinate the settlement of problems.

Policy measures to boost investment and consumption will be advanced on a priority basis, such as fiscal, taxation and financial support for key infrastructure projects and equipment upgrading and renovation.

Localities are urged to fulfill their due responsibilities for stabilizing the economy and meeting people's basic needs. Economically strong provinces should play a leading role and work together to consolidate the foundation for economic stability and promote recovery and growth.

To deepen the reform of government functions and make government services more efficient and effective, a list of high-demand government services that affect a wide range of sectors and are accessed in relatively concentrated timeframes will be set up, covering all key stages in the life circles of businesses and individuals, to meet their real needs.

Government departments will merge related items, and work to provide one-stop, cross-agency services for items that used to require multiple visits to multiple departments, so as to save hassle for businesses and the people.

For market players, five items of government services, i.e. starting of business, permit for business operation, employee recruitment, real estate registration and simplified enterprise de-registration, can now be accessed on a one-stop basis.

This will lower institutional transaction costs and help market entities emerge and grow. It will also help unlock and boost productivity to cope with new downward pressure.

For individuals, one-stop services will be provided on eight administrative items, involving newborns, flexible employment, marriage and childbirth, assistance to the disabled and people in hardship, discharge of military personnel, ownership transfer registration of second-hand houses and associated utility services, retirement of enterprise employees and posthumous procedures, to better serve people's needs and provide greater convenience.

All localities must fulfill these tasks by the end of the year. Those who fail to deliver will be made known and urged to rectify on a time-bound basis.

Noting that transportation and logistics are the lifeline of a market economy, the meeting stressed the need to keep transportation and logistics smooth and enhance policy support.

The meeting required all-out efforts to ensure the normal functioning of ports and cargo terminals, as well as smooth logistics in both trunk and branch routes. Unnecessarily stringent measures and a one-size-fits-all approach must be forestalled.

In Q4, highway tolls for trucks will be cut by 10 percent. In the meantime, targeted financial policy support will be provided to tolled highway operators, to lower their financing costs as appropriate.

Government-priced harbor dues on cargo will be lowered by 20 percent in Q4.

The 100-billion-yuan (about 14.33 billion U.S. dollars) special re-lending for transportation and logistics will be put to good use to help freight companies and drivers get through the difficulties.

The meeting underlined the need to pursue law-based administration and step up the building of a law-based government. The exercise of power must not be arbitrary.

Administrative reconsideration is a supervision mechanism that allows the government to make self-correction, and is conducive to preventing and redressing unlawful or inappropriate administrative conducts.

It is a remedy system for settling the administrative disputes under which citizens sue the government, and helps safeguard the lawful rights and interests of citizens and legal persons.

The meeting adopted a draft revision of the Administrative Reconsideration Law of the People's Republic of China.

In keeping with the principle of serving the people, the draft lays down clearer provisions on expanding the scope of accepted cases, improving the quality of case handling, and strengthening the oversight of administrative reconsideration over administrative law enforcement, to enhance the credibility of administrative reconsideration and build it into the main channel for settling administrative disputes.

The meeting decided to submit the draft to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress for deliberation.