Despite the firing of its mayor in June and continued doubts over its restructuring plan, Shenzhen, the testing ground of China's economic reform three decades ago, has announced its determination to pilot the country's administrative reform, streamlining its government departments into "policy making," "policy execution" and "supervision" branches.

After the nomination of 16 newly-assigned bureau leaders Wednesday, "the most important work now is to draw up a detailed game plan by the end of August, which will determine whether the reform will be successful, " Wang Min, director general of the Personnel Bureau of Shenzhen Municipality, told the Global Times yesterday.

Seven "policymaking commissions" under the mayor's office will be created around core issues such as development and reform, science and trade, finance, urban planning and State land resources; traffic, hygiene and family planning, and the environment.

Each commission will also oversee "policy execution" bureaus. The remaining government agencies will act as supervisory bodies.

After the reform, 46 government departments are expected to be incorporated into 31.

Some bureaus will be phased out and others will be combined. The former bureau of personnel and the bureau of labor, for example, will be combined into one.

The reshuffle will exclude seven departments at the bureau level – public security, education, civil affairs, justice, auditing, checkpoints and Taiwan affairs.

"The main purpose of the reform is to make the function of each bureau clear and reallocate staff to help the government run more efficiently," Wang said.

Although administrative reform is considered the most challenging and most important aspect of the ambitious program, the nomination of new leaders was so speedy that even several nominees themselves had no idea about it before the result was unveiled.

Shen Qingsan, the new director of the Market Administration Bureau, revealed in his campaign speech that he knew about the nomination only a short time before getting on board.

"I hurried back, I didn't even have time to prepare for my speech," he said.

Although the official claimed that nobody would be forced to leave their jobs, the newly nominated leaders have already considered the personnel issue as a top priority in the overall reform.

"Five departments of our bureau had to amalgamate, so the dilemma of how we are to arrange all these people is tough, " a new official, who asked to be anonymous, told the South Daily.

Prior to the reform, some mid-level officials had already worried that they might be demoted, since there were not enough positions for them after the abolition of several bureaus, according to the South Daily.

Du Gangjian, director of the Law Institute of Shantou University, who was a participant in the reform plan of government administration in Shenzhen, said, "It is hard to avoid the fact that the reform will definitely hurt the interests of some bureaus and officials."

Actually, there are some doubts that the reform might remain stagnated since the former mayor, Xu Zongheng, was removed from his post for "serious disciplinary violations," in June. He was reported to have accepted bribes during his tenure in office.

However, amid the ongoing reform, it's unavoidable that the shake-up will face doubts and pressure from both the public and officials.

"I don't think there will be any improvement after the reform, since I don't believe the work efficiency can be improved. What I am really concerned about is whether the reform can really reduce the government's expenditure," Li Ming, 28, a staff member of a foreign company in Shenzhen, told the Global Times.

Ding Yifan, a scholar at the Development Research Center of the State Council, warned, "The reform of local government should be carefully and scientifically analyzed before its implementation."

"It might not be reasonable for the local government to simply imitate the central government in terms of administrative structure," Ding said, adding that the local government should not be simply criticized for staff redundancy, since many departments are still in need of talent.

"The reform may adjust the administrative department and make full use of human resources in the government," Ding said. "I believe the working efficiency may be increased by the reform, to some extent."

(Global Times August 7, 2009)