Zhejiang mulls legislation for further administrative reform

East China's Zhejiang province has drafted a new law to cut down on excessive red tape and ensure better implementation of its "At Most One Visit" administrative reform.

The new law stipulates the legal bases for Zhejiang's practices in streamlining administrative procedures for people and businesses, including placing government departments all under one roof at service centers.

 "The lessons we have learnt so far from the success of Zhejiang's 'At Most One Visit' should be implemented in the form of regulations in a bid to further boost the comprehensive and in-depth reform of the province," said an official from Zhejiang's office of legislative affairs, noting that the law will also help address some intractable problems such as the isolation of information.

Meanwhile, the new moves will also raise requirements for administrative agencies. For example, it will be stipulated that both online and offline services should be available to the public and materials dealing with administrative matters for the public should be reduced as much as possible.

In hope of promoting the digitalization of administrative services, Zhejiang is looking to promote the idea that electronic materials have the same authenticity as paper materials, as is stated in the new law.

The "At Most One Visit" reform, initiated by Zhejiang in February 2017, is a pilot system aimed at streamlining administrative services, as well simplifying the process for people visiting government departments so that ideally they only have to do so once. The central government singled out Zhejiang for praise and said that other provinces can learn from the success of the province's administrative reform on Jan 23, 2018, and it was also mentioned in the government work report at the opening meeting of the first session of the 13th National People's Congress in March.