China is to launch a massive reform in the next ten years, seeking to make millions of its public institutions more functional and efficient, while giving priority to basic social services such as compulsory education, primary scientific research and health care.

The Chinese government has set forth a blueprint and detailed timetable for the reform of public institutions nationwide in accordance with their types, said the upcoming issue of Outlook Weekly, a Chinese-language magazine, citing unnamed authoritative sources.

According to the government work report released last month, the reform requires that institutions "stop performing government and business functions, that supervision be separated from day-to-day operations and that for-profit institutions be separated from non-profit ones."

The move seeks to address various problems in the current work of public institutions, such as those with administrative powers imposing unnecessary fines and outdated organization and management methods resulting in the waste of public resources.

According to professor Song Shiming with the Chinese Academy of Governance, public institutions with administrative functions will be transformed into administrative organizations under strict supervision, and those operating commercial businesses will become enterprises.

Experts note that public institutions with inadequate or ambiguous functions will be eliminated or merged into other organizations.

"Meanwhile, public institutions engaging in social services are urged to strengthen their functions," Song said. These government-sponsored institutions will be prohibited from performing commercial activities.

According to Song, these institutions will become the "main force" to provide basic social services as the core function of a service-oriented government.

Statistics show that China has 1.26 million public institutions and more than 40 million staff (including retirees). Most of these institutions offer services in education, health, agriculture and technology.