Three Questions on the Delegation of Approval Authority by the Shunde District Government to Social Intermediaries
Two years after implementing the "large department system," Shunde has once again launched a new administrative reform initiative. Photo by Southern Daily reporter Zhang Youqiong.
Last Monday, Guangdong Science Center ticket reservation, Shunde District convened a mobilization conference for deepening the reform of the administrative approval system, announcing the launch of a new round of administrative approval reforms in the province. This is also a new administrative reform measure implemented by Shunde two years after promoting the "large department system." Among these measures, the most attention-grabbing undoubtedly involves the traditional administrative approval departments delegating authority to social intermediary organizations such as industry associations and chambers of commerce, allowing these intermediaries to take over some of the administrative approval functions. However, compared to the government's radical reforms, are Shunde's social intermediary organizations already mature enough? How should the government ensure fairness and impartiality in regulating intermediary organizations? Relevant experts have suggested that Shunde must improve its top-level institutional design when delegating approval authority, clearly define the scope of delegated functions, and conduct cautious pilot projects.
First Question: Why is the government delegating authority to social intermediary organizations?
As an important part of Guangdong Province's administrative management system reform, Shunde initiated the large department system reform two years ago. However, with the passage of time, the luster of the large department system has gradually faded, and the effectiveness that the large department system should have demonstrated has been far from fully realized. Foshan Municipal Party Committee Standing Committee Member and Secretary of the Shunde District Party Committee Liang Weidong introduced that in recent years, due to the lack of increase in the number of civil servants and the absence of profound changes in the management system, the civil servant team has entered a state of being overwhelmed, leading to increasingly ineffective government management. The operation of large departments after the large department system reform has exacerbated this situation.
Liang Weidong believes that to break this deadlock, it is necessary to further clarify the relationship between the government and society and address the issue of government overreach. Matters that the market should handle should be handed over to the market, matters that society should handle should be returned to society, and responsibilities that citizens should bear should be borne by citizens. Therefore, in this reform, Shunde was the first to propose delegating power to society and transferring some functions, transferring matters that citizens, legal persons, and other organizations can independently resolve, that market mechanisms can self-regulate, and that social organizations can resolve through self-discipline.
Data shows that China averages one social organization per 3115 people, while Shunde averages about one social organization per 2000 people, far exceeding the national average. As the designer of this administrative approval system reform plan and professor at the National Academy of Governance, Song Shiming believes that Shunde's civilian social organizations have become very mature in terms of industry self-discipline and industry services but have yet to play their proper and capable role in administrative approvals, "which is not conducive to innovation in the social management system or the transfer and transformation of government functions."
For this reason, a directory of service and management items to be transferred to society will be formulated, creating conditions to legally transfer functions such as industry management and coordination, social micro-affairs services and management, technical and market services to qualified social organizations. Each department should trial-transfer at least 1 to 2 approval service items to social organizations within the year.
Avoiding overwhelming civil servants and achieving self-liberation of the government
Second Question: Are social intermediary organizations ready?
At the same time that the Shunde government publicly announced its administrative approval system reform plan, an evaluation targeting social intermediary organizations taking over departmental administrative approval functions had already quietly begun. According to relevant officials from the Civil Affairs Department and Social Affairs Division of the Shunde District Party Committee, the evaluation conducted to provide a basis for this administrative approval reform has already attracted applications from 31 social intermediary organizations, all of which are industry associations and chambers of commerce, covering various industries such as home appliances, textiles, plastics, furniture, and steel. "Has Shunde's social intermediary organization really grown up?" In the view of Li Shaokui, chairman of Guangdong Xinli Consulting Co., Ltd. and independent scholar, although Shunde's social intermediary organizations are numerous, they still have a long way to go in terms of assuming such important functions as approval authorities. After working as an advisor and consultant in Shunde for 12 years, Li Shaokui frankly admitted that currently, most social intermediary organizations have fragile vitality, and their institutional construction remains insufficient. Whether they can assume such significant functions is still questionable. "I hope the government can proceed step by step and start with pilot projects." Unlike Li Shaokui's concerns, Ye Zhongping, deputy director of the Decision-making Consultation and Policy Research Office of the Shunde District Party Committee, believes that many of the government's current approval functions involve procedural processes and do not require too much professional skill. "Social intermediary organizations can operate them well after simple training." It was learned that the Shunde District Party Committee's Civil Affairs Department has already hired experts from the provincial evaluation center (third party) to evaluate the registered intermediary organizations based on aspects such as legal compliance, standardized operations, role-playing, and social evaluations, forming "5A, 4A, 3A" level qualifications recognition. Social intermediary organizations recognized with 3A or higher levels are expected to receive authorization for government administrative approval matters in the second half of the year.
Delegate third-party experts for assessment and recognition, cautiously implement pilot work
Third Question: How to supervise the use of approval authority?
According to the reform plan, government departments will, within the scope of their powers and responsibilities, according to laws and regulations, delegate relevant administrative approval and other administrative management matters that can be undertaken by social organizations to these organizations for a certain period through methods such as purchasing services. The government will determine and publicize the conditions, principles, and performance evaluation standards for承接service, determining the transfer objects through bidding procurement.
"For problems that arise during the exercise of approval authority by social intermediary organizations, how should the government respond?" Li Shaokui believes that the best way to avoid such issues is for government departments to improve institutional design when delegating authority, clarifying peripheral and core functions, and implementing differentiated pilots. "Authorities with problems in actual operations must be promptly retracted." Li Shaokui proposed that the government's policy research department must strictly control beforehand, finding legal guarantees for authority delegation from laws and regulations. "I believe that citizens supervising the behavior of business associations will be more active and easier than supervising the government," Ye Zhongping believed that social intermediary organizations, after undertaking approval authorities, must operate from the perspective of fairness and justice. Regarding Li Shaokui's concerns, Ye Zhongping believed that Shunde could emulate semi-official organizational models like Hong Kong's Trade Development Council, "where the government provides partial financial subsidies, directly appoints key leaders, and other staff members do not possess public office status." Many responsible persons from Shunde's chambers of commerce and associations also frankly admitted that the lack of funding is indeed an important reason for the current imperfection of organizational institutions. If they are to undertake the government's approval functions, then the association itself must first establish a scientific and reasonable supervision and decision-making mechanism, strengthening the reserve of professional talent.
Improve internal supervision and decision-making mechanisms of intermediary organizations, government controls beforehand
Undertake government-related service functions
Expand the depth and breadth of services for small and medium enterprises
Shunde Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion Association:
This Wednesday, the first Shunde Small and Medium Enterprises Service Week and the fifth Shunde Small and Medium Enterprises Service Day series of activities opened at the Sheraton Hotel in Dalang. At the scene, there were not many government civil servants; instead, there were more staff members from the Shunde Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion Association who organized the event orderly and vividly.
The Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion Association is guided by the Shunde Economic Promotion Bureau and the Shunde Small and Medium Enterprises Bureau. It is a non-profit social organization voluntarily formed by a wide range of small and medium-sized enterprises and small and medium enterprise service providers within the district, aiming to serve small and medium-sized enterprises. As a comprehensive social organization, the Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion Association develops differently and complements each other with industry chambers of commerce, attracting, integrating, and optimizing small and medium enterprise service resources to cooperate with government departments in establishing and improving the socialized service system for small and medium-sized enterprises.
Since its establishment in 2007, the Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion Association has started to attempt to undertake some functional duties of the Small and Medium Enterprises Bureau, becoming the "front desk" for government affairs work. These functions include the application and preliminary review of national, provincial, district, and municipal small and medium enterprise development special funds, recommendation and preliminary review of high-quality small and medium enterprises in the district, recommendation of small and medium enterprise credit guarantee fund loan projects, enterprise listing recommendations, pre-organization and coordination work for the China SME Fair and trade negotiations at all levels, conducting regional economic cooperation and exchanges, operating and maintaining the Shunde Small and Medium Enterprises E-commerce Platform, and managing the Small and Medium Enterprise Service Hotline in six major areas.
In 2009, to further optimize the development environment for enterprises and accelerate the construction of comprehensive service institutions, Shunde established the Shunde Economy and Science Small and Medium Enterprises Service Center based on the Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion Association, while simultaneously hanging the "Foshan City Shunde District Small and Medium Enterprises Financial Service Center" sign. Operating under three signs with one team, it implements independent accounting and coordinated development, adopting a model of substantive and market-oriented operations to provide comprehensive and specialized services such as financing, technology, market, information, talent, and training for small and medium enterprises. The center has set up multiple departments, including the Financing Service Department, Science and Technology Management Department, Consulting and Training Department, and E-commerce Department, which will undertake the preliminary work of relevant government functional departments, including policy implementation and private economy research, project application, investment and financing, economic cooperation, and service对接.
After several years of development, the Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion Association has built platforms for project application, market expansion, enterprise training, and investment and financing services, promoting the productization and standardization of services, successfully creating more than ten service brands such as Small and Medium Enterprise Service Day, Shun Business Forum, Shun Business Ten Thousand Mile Journey, Business Dialogue, Small and Medium Enterprise Transformation and Upgrading President Training Class, Pearl River Delta Small and Medium Enterprises Daily Consumer Goods Exhibition, Small and Medium Enterprise Development Forum and Small and Medium Enterprise Annual Meeting. In April this year, the Shunde Economic Promotion Bureau jointly built the "Shun Business School" with the Guangdong Provincial Small and Middle-sized Enterprises Bureau and the Business School of South China University of Technology. The Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion Association once again undertook part of the training organization work of the school, solving the contradiction of limited manpower of the Small and Medium Enterprises Bureau staff.
Currently, the Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion Association has grown into one of the service institutions with the most personnel, highest quality, and strongest service capabilities among various small and medium-sized enterprise service institutions in the district. According to the plan, Shunde will strive to build the Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion Association into a distinctive, capable, and contributing brand service institution serving small and medium-sized enterprises and supported by small and medium-sized enterprises within five years, becoming a well-known comprehensive service solution provider and outsourcing operator for small and medium-sized enterprises in the Pearl River Delta.
Wenzhou Government Partial Administrative Powers Delegated to Industry Associations
In Wenzhou, where China's private economy is most active, the local municipal government has taken the lead in transferring 18 original government functions to industry associations. Wenzhou's industry associations (chambers of commerce) have assumed non-administrative licensing matters originally handled by government departments, including market governance and regulation, economic management and adjustment, industry public services, and social affairs management.
As early as the 1990s, Wenzhou issued an "Opinion on Accelerating the Reform and Development of Industry Associations and Chambers of Commerce," assigning 16 functions to industry associations (chambers of commerce), including industry statistics, information aggregation and analysis, organizing exhibitions and sales, and later adding assisting in industry safety production management functions. In 2008, the transfer of government functions to industry associations (chambers of commerce) was included in Wenzhou's comprehensive supporting reform for the innovative development of the private economy. The Municipal Economic and Trade Commission led the establishment of a reform pilot promotion leading group, with participation from eight relevant municipal government departments. In 2009, the pilot promotion leading group formulated and issued relevant regulations, designating the Municipal Economic and Trade Commission, Personnel Bureau, Environmental Protection Bureau, Foreign Economic and Trade Bureau, and Science and Technology Bureau as the first batch of pilot units for the transfer of municipal department functions.
To date, the functions that Wenzhou's industry associations (chambers of commerce) have taken over include: in market governance and regulation, participating in the approval of production and operation licenses, completing pre-reviews; participating in safety production, quality inspection supervision, and educational affairs; coordinating industry price adjustments and professional talent salary standards to avoid vicious competition within the industry. In economic management and adjustment, through commissioned ways, obtaining industry statistics and information, providing basic materials for analyzing the industry's economic situation, including quarterly reports, annual reports, special investigations, and statistics. In industry public services, undertaking industry-wide talent training and qualification training. On behalf of the government, undertaking pre-reviews of industry talents and technical titles.
It is worth noting that Wenzhou's government functional departments can, within their powers and responsibilities, transfer administrative functions or administrative matters to industry associations according to relevant regulations through commissioning or authorization, or purchase services from industry associations (chambers of commerce) through contract agreements. At the end of each year, the reform pilot promotion working group evaluates the government functions undertaken by industry associations (chambers of commerce). If problems are found, they will be dealt with according to the severity of the situation, including public criticism, ordering rectification within a time limit, and recovering the government functions they have undertaken.
During the process of delegating authority, Wenzhou's government also faces the awkward situation of "having authority but unwilling to delegate, having no authority but delegating quickly." Moreover, the evaluation mechanism in the specific implementation process is still imperfect, and the weak capacity of industry associations (chambers of commerce) to take over greatly hinders the transfer of functions.
Southern Daily reporters Zheng Mengjie and Zhang Peifa
(Edited by Zhang Xiang)