Reform Exploration in the Least Populous County in Hunan Province: Number of Government Departments Adjusted from 33 to 23
The population-small county of Gujiang in western Hunan, with the least population in Hunan Province, has announced the results of its institutional reform.
On January 11th, when interviewed by Hunan Daily’s New Hunan Client, Teng Chao Hui, the第十五届representative of the Western Hunan District and the current secretary of the Gujiang County Party Committee, mentioned that in 2024, Gujang, as one of the “one county, one city, and three districts”, has taken up the responsibility of carrying out institutional reform as a population-small county in the province. The county’s institutional limits have been adjusted from 33 before the reform to 23, with a reduction of 55 leading positions at the department level. The industrial park staff and leading positions at the department level have been streamlined by 69.2% and 83.3% respectively. The county-level coordinating institutions have been reduced from 271 to 21, with a reduction rate of 92%. Through institutional reform, the organization structure is more optimized and operates more efficiently, reducing the financial expenditure burden and achieving a “slimming” of the organization. The reform has created a new style of work and spirit, and strengthened the confidence of the whole county in developing and benefiting the people’s livelihood. For example, cadres have accomplished a number of good deeds and practical matters around the “urgent, difficult, and looked-for” issues of the masses, resolved 35 long-standing letters and visits throughout the year, and solved the problem of “a county with a small population but a large number of letters and visits”.
Teng Chao Hui introduced that at the Two Sessions of Western Hunan, his main proposal was “Suggestions on Increasing the Subsequent Assistance after the Institutional Reform of Population-Small Counties”. In 2024, Gujiang County, following the requirements of the Central Committee and Provincial Party Committee, completed the pilot reform of industrial park construction in advance in March last year and fully completed the reform of small county institutions in July, which initially achieved the effects of reducing institutions, improving efficiency, and reducing financial pressure. To further consolidate the achievements of reform, specific suggestions were made from aspects such as “optimizing comprehensive assessment”, “helping resolve invisible debts”, “increasing project construction, transfer payments, industrial transformation and upgrading, and rural revitalization” to consolidate the effectiveness of reform. It is hoped that more attention will be paid to vulnerable groups such as the elderly, children, urban “zero-employment” families, and rural left-behind women in terms of livelihood issues in 2025, and that their urgent, necessary, and anticipated needs will be resolved so that difficult groups can feel more care and warmth from the party and government.
According to information published on the Gujiang County government website, local departments include the Urban and Rural Construction and Transportation Bureau, the Agriculture, Rural Water Conservancy Bureau, as well as the Civil Affairs and Human Resources Social Security Bureau. In addition, according to the county’s institutional reform requirements, Gujiang County Development and Reform Bureau, County Statistics Bureau, and County National Mobilization Office have already co-located. Taking this bureau as an example, its leadership team consists of six members: Party Secretary and Director Huang Zehu, Party Group Member and Deputy Director Peng Wulingqian who is also in charge of the County National Mobilization Office, Party Group Member and Deputy Director Su Dongmei, Party Group Member and Deputy Director of Statistics Zhang Shihao, Deputy Director Kuo Xiaoli, and Deputy Director Chen Shiwei responsible for statistics.
The significance of small county reforms is not small. In 2017, Hunan Provincial Finance Department’s response to a proposal mentioned that population-small counties generally refer to counties with a total population (registered population) less than 300,000 people. There are 13 population-small counties in Hunan Province, accounting for 16.46% of the province’s directly managed counties with a total of 79 counties. Specifically including Yanling County, Shaoshan City, Chengbu County, Jinsong City among others as well as Gujiang County.
At that time, Hunan Provincial Finance Department introduced that these population-small counties in Hunan Province show three characteristics of “high cost per capita” resulting from low population total in addition to high average per capita GDP: Firstly high per capita level: due to low population total except per capita GDP; Secondly high dependency on higher authorities due to limited local revenue resources as these counties rely heavily on transfer payment funds from higher authorities with some counties having a dependence rate as high as 90%; Thirdly high financial supply rate which is higher than average across all directly managed counties in Hunan Province by 1.48 times on average per county level with some counties like Shuangpai County having a financial supply personnel ratio as high as one person supported by every
