The Chinese government announced a new institutional reform on March 10, 2013. The super-ministry reform was designed to focus on "functional integration," "separation of government and enterprise" and "administrative simplification and decentralization."

The reform plan is expected to create a new kind of functional unity based on government functionality, integration and efficiency.

In actuality, all previous institutional reforms in China have taken government functionality as their axis, but have failed to produce satisfactory results because they did not achieve a balance between government and market and between government and society. China's most pressing task now is to properly define the relationship between government and the market, and government and society while promoting decentralization.

The Chinese government needs to provide a new form of public service while reducing servicing costs, improving service efficiency and quality.

In recent years, the development of government acquisition of public services has accelerated. According to government data, the central government allocated 200 million yuan to purchase public services in 2012, and government procurement of public services from social organizations has now reached a new stage of development.

However, when compared to developed Western countries, China still has much left to do in this regard.

Effective "decentralization" is the key to realize the fundamental transformation of government functionality.

The author is a researcher with the State Information Center.

This post was published in Chinese and translated by An Wei.

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.

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