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THE Chinese Government has underlined its concerns about the environment by upgrading it into one of five new super-ministries announced yesterday.
But the bureaucratic hurdles have proven too great to create the long-expected energy super-ministry.
Overall, it is a timid result from a much-vaunted review aimed at streamlining decision-making and supervision, with the number of cabinet-level agencies reporting to the peak government body, the State Council, cut by just one from 28 to 27.
In announcing the outcome to the annual session of the National People's Congress, Hua Jianmin, the secretary-general of the State Council, said the reforms were "aimed at building an efficient and service-oriented government". He said "problems of overlap between departments, disconnect between power and responsibility and low efficiency are...