BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Tuesday unveils a bureaucratic redesign that he hopes will foster greener, more efficient government by creating new "super ministries."
Yet with fierce rival interests at stake, experts said the plan was unlikely to end turf wars over energy policy, pollution and industry giants.
The reforms will herd together dozens of agencies, creating big departments for industry, transport and the environment, according to officials and local press reports that have dubbed them "super ministries."
The plan is a high point of this year's National People's Congress, the Communist Party-controlled parliament that meets in full once a year. National leaders have said it will make for better government, cutting red-tape and clarifying officials' responsibilities as they steer the increasingly complex economy.
A stronger environmental administration could cut pollution that has stoked rising public discontent and the revamp is also likely to include a new energy commission that could bolster Beijing's grip on the crucial, but fragmented, sector.
But this is far from China's first big bureaucratic revamp, and past results have been less than super.
One recent study counted eight overhauls since 1949, with the last under Wen's predecessor, Zhu Rongji, in 1998 and 2003, who also vowed to dramatically streamline government.
Wen's plan would cut some inefficiency and overlap but not dramatically transform the country's top-down, Party-dominated approach to governing, said Ding Xueliang, a Beijing-based scholar with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
"There were also huge hopes for the reforms under Zhu Rongji in his last year," said Ding. "I said then that you can't expect too much. This time I retain my original view."
The plan will remove one layer of officialdom between Premier Wen and key ministers dealing day-to-day with the country's biggest worries, job creation, price rises, pollution and energy, said Mao Shoulong of the People's University of China.
He likened the current system to a filter that stops crucial information reaching leaders fast enough. "If even the best tea goes through six layers of filters, then in the end all you get is bottled water," Mao said.
But the real battle could come once the plan rolls out in coming months and central officials, local governments and state conglomerates contend for control of key levers of power -- price-setting, project approvals and personnel appointments, Mao added.
Even an expert who advised officials on the plan said real change to the way Chinese government operates would need deeper political reforms to expose officials to greater public accountability.
"Without progress in political system reform, it will be difficult to have a true super-ministry system," Wang Yukai of the National School of Administration, which trains officials, told the Web site of the People's Daily (www.people.com.cn).
(Editing by Nick Macfie and John Chalmers)
