More People Take Qualification Exams for Civil Service

Nearly 4,400 ordinary Chinese citizens have been recruited as civil servants after taking open qualification exams since 1996.

This represents a major step forward in reforming China's recruitment system, according to officials.

Anyone who wants to be a civil servant must be recruited through open examinations, said Dai Guangqian, vice-minister of personnel.

The new recruits - 11 per cent of those who took the tests - have got jobs by using their own abilities rather than being recommended by high-ranking officials or through nepotism, he said.

All but four agencies, which have no job openings, of the State Council, China's highest governing body, have recruited using the new exams, sources with the Ministry of Personnel confirmed.

They said most of those who qualified through the tests were under 35 and had a college degree or a higher diploma.

The exams include a written examination which determines the participants' general and professional knowledge. There is then an interview for those who pass.

The reform has put an end to the so-called "iron rice bowl" in the civil service, where employees were given a job for life regardless of their abilities. It has also opened up careers for other people regardless of their background or social status, officials in charge of the reform said.

In the last six years, ordinary farmers and workers have also managed to get into positions in local governments at province, prefecture, county and town level through similar open examinations.

By early 1999, such tests had been adopted in 31 provincial, autonomous regions and municipalities throughout China.

Statistics show that 1.5 million people took these exams.

The practice of choosing civil servants by exam has helped create a cleaner image among the public and has improved the general quality of government officials, experts say.

Since 1993, China has issued a number of regulations concerning the civil service to solve other major problems in its outdated system. The key problem was that once people were employed, they could not be dismissed unless they committed a crime.





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