The recent restructuring of cabinet-level regulatory bodies at the State Council will improve the efficiency of the approval processes through the consolidation of different agencies according to Lewis Ho, consultant at Simmons & Simmons.

The move, which took place immediately after the March National People’s Congress, consolidates the many major departments in the State Council. The restructuring involves:

• The administration of nuclear energy of the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense which will be consolidated and transferred to the State Energy Bureau.

• The Ministry of Construction for guiding urban passenger transport will now come under the Ministry of Transport.

• The Ministry of Personnel and of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security becomes Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

• The Ministry of Information Industry and the State Council Informatization Office will be consolidated and transferred to the Ministry of Industry and Informatization.

Ho says there will be fewer approval layers that lawyers may need to file for their clients. Because different departments’ opinions vary, he says, the difficulty in comprising all suggestions may often hinder the efficiency of any administrative process.

After the regulatory body’s reshuffle, lawyers will not be required to go through as many different agencies for a single issue, and that will certainly help strengthening thmane process of certain decision-making in China, Ho says.

“From the efficiency point of view, it’s better to group certain departments under one leadership rather have different department dealing with the same issue, because we [will] have to go to different departments to seek certain consultancy,” he says.