The Standing Committee of the Beijing Municipal People's Congress, the capital city's top legislative body, appointed a director of the new Beijing Municipal Bureau of Water Affairs on Tuesday.

The move marked an important step in the city's efforts to integrate supervision of water resources.

The committee tapped Jiao Zhizhong, former director of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Water Resources, to take over the new agency.

The Beijing municipal government decided last month to abolish the water resources bureau and form the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Water Affairs, which will take over all the functions of its predecessor as well as supervision of water supply, water conservation, wastewater treatment and use and conservation of underground water. The latter tasks were previously handled by the Beijing Municipal Urban Administration Committee.

The municipal government has vowed to turn Beijing into a water conservation city as it faces crucial conditions in the sixth year of a drought.

Also on Tuesday, the Standing Committee of the Beijing Municipal People's Congress appointed Ji Lin as vice mayor.

The Beijing municipal government has had eight vice mayors to assist Mayor Wang Qishan.

Ji Lin was former Party secretary of the Beijing Municipal Committee of Politics and Law.

The Beijing Municipal People's Congress Tuesday abolished two local regulations on management of the city's construction and entertainment markets.

"Some clauses in the Beijing Municipal Construction Market Management Regulation do not accord with China's promises to the World Trade Organization," Zhou Jidong, director of the Beijing Municipal Legal Affairs Office, said Tuesday.

According to the abolished regulation, overseas construction enterprises must ask permission from local authorities before entering into the Beijing market.

"It is also against the Law on Administrative Licensing, which will go into effect in July," Zhou said.

The Beijing Municipal Cultural and Entertainment Market Management Regulation was not in accord with State Council's national regulation on supervision of the entertainment market, which says that industry and commerce authorities are responsible. The old city rules said local cultural or public security departments had to do that job.

(China Daily April 21, 2004)