Brussels, 14/03/2000 (Agence Europe) - European External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten and Chinese Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Minister Shi Guangsheng have signed an agreement for financing of EUR 7.3 million for a cooperation programme in the public administration sector. The Commission undertakes to contribute EUR 5.7 million and China 1.6 million.
The programme, which should be implemented during the year, is mainly focused on the following actions: i) organisation of seminars for political analysis and strategy; ii) development of a degree in public administration over 2 years; iii) an exchange programme for teachers of public administration; iv) the creation of a network for the exchange of information and experience on administrative reforms; and v) the development of recruitment systems.
The programme will have as its main partners the Member State schools of administration and the national Chinese administration school. On the Chinese side it will be addressed to some 1000 senior officials at director level at least. In practice, it will be managed by a European partner, to be selected in the near future through a call for offers.
In parallel to the economic opening process, China has begun the progressive reform of its public administration which has around 5.3 million officials, most of them working at the local level. The central and regional administrations have 35,000 and 454,000 officials respectively, according to European Commission officials. This project comes within the framework of the policy accompanying reform of energy policy, in implementation for several years now, and the draft programme concerning judicial reforms.