National Development and Reform Commission

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) is a powerful a macroeconomic management agency under the Chinese State Council, which has broad administrative and planning control over the Chinese economy. The NDRC's functions are to study and formulate policies for economic and social development, maintain the balance of economic development, and to guide restructuring of China's economic system.[1]

The NDRC is a successor to the State Planning Commission (SPC), which had managed China's centrally planned economy since 1952. In 1998, the SPC was renamed as the State Development Planning Commission (SDPC), which then merged with the State Council Office for Restructuring the Economic System (SCORES) and part of the State Economic and Trade Commission (SETC) in 2003. The restructured organization was then merged into a newly created NDRC, which gained greater responsibility and power in overseeing China's economic development. The NDRC has twenty-six functional departments/bureaus/offices with an authorized staff size of 890 civil servants.

The principal functions of the NDRC are:

1. To formulate and implement macroeconomic policies;

2. To monitor and adjust the performance of the national economy;

3. To examine and approve major construction projects;

4. To guide and promote economic restructuring;

5. To coordinate the readjustment of China's industrial structure with development of agriculture and rural economy;

6. To formulate plans for the development of the energy sector and manage national oil reserves;

7. To promote the Western Region Development Program, which calls for China's economic growth to include the poorer Western provinces;

8. To submit a national economic plan to the National People's Congress on behalf of the State Council.