China makes progress in building government financial report system

BEIJING -- China has made headway in its plan to build a comprehensive government financial report system in a bid to raise fiscal transparency, according to an official report released Friday.

At present, the country has started trials in seven provincial-level regions and two government departments, including the Ministry of Land and Resources and the State Forestry Administration, said the report submitted to a meeting of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC).

The plan targets to have the government financial report system in place before 2020 to provide accurate data on the revenues, expenditures and assets of governments at different levels, and raise the fiscal transparency and governance capability.

The report said the current trials represent a key stage for setting up standards and rules for building the mechanism.

However, the country has met difficulties in pushing forward the reforms, including insufficient understanding of some local governments on the system's importance, incomplete data on some government assets and weak data analysis and application, the report said.

The report added the comprehensive financial report system should become a platform for modernized fiscal management, government credit and supervision of people's congresses at all levels and shared governance of the public.

At the meeting, the General Office of the State Council made a report on implementing the NPC Standing Committee's decision and review about the 2015 central government final accounts.