Why was the Chemical ministry cancelled?

The Ministry of Chemical Industry, the full name of the Ministry of Chemical Industry of the People's Republic of China, has a long history in China, although it has been renamed several times, but it was not until the beginning of this century that it was completely abolished and converted into an industry self-regulatory organization (that is, the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation). I will not say anything about the history of the Ministry of Chemical Industry, and I will add more if I am interested. One of the most direct reasons for the abolition of the Ministry of Chemical Industry is the transformation of China's economic system from a planned economy to a market economy. At the first session of the Seventh National People's Congress held on March 28, 1988, when Song Ping, then State Councilor, made an Explanation on the Reform Plan of The State Council, he pointed out:

"Since the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Party, due to the comprehensive development of economic system reform, the shortcomings of the existing institutions have become increasingly prominent, mainly manifested in: the separation of government and enterprise, unreasonable structure, too much micro-management in functions, and ineffective macro-control; The organization is bloated, there are too many layers, responsibilities are unclear, and the work efficiency is not high; The quality and structure of government workers are not adapted to the indirect management of the economy, the law, and so on. The further deepening of the reform of the economic system and the development of the political system require the corresponding transformation of the functions and management methods of government institutions, and the adjustment of the overall pattern of the establishment of institutions and their responsibilities and powers. Without institutional reform, it will be difficult to deepen economic restructuring, consolidate the achievements already made, and implement many measures for political restructuring. Therefore, we must make up our minds to reform the government from top to bottom. At the first session of the Ninth National People's Congress held on March 6, 1998, Luo Gan, then Secretary-General of The State Council, made an explanation on the reform plan of The State Council institutions: "The basic framework of the existing government institutions was gradually formed under the conditions of the implementation of the planned economic system. The prominent drawback is that the government does not distinguish between government and enterprise, and the government directly intervenes in the production and operation activities of enterprises, which cannot form an investment system for scientific decision-making, and is easy to cause unclear responsibilities and decision-making errors

It is difficult to give play to the basic role of the market in resource allocation. The separation of government and enterprise will inevitably lead to the government taking over the affairs belonging to enterprises and setting up a large number of professional economic management departments. At the same time, one-sided emphasis on the mutual constraints of comprehensive departments and professional departments, resulting in overlapping functions of departments, multiple policies, mutual squabbling, and low efficiency. After 20 years of reform and opening up, a pattern has been developed with public ownership as the mainstay and multiple sectors of the economy developing together. The scale of the state-owned economy is expanding day by day, and the organizational form and management mode of enterprises have changed greatly. The system of direct management of enterprises through specialized economic departments has become less and less suitable for the establishment of a modern enterprise system. The institutional reform plan of The State Council adopted at this meeting made it clear that the Ministry of Chemical Industry should be abolished and the government functions of the Ministry of Chemical Industry, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Corporation and the Petrochemical Corporation should be merged.

The State Bureau of Petroleum and Chemical Industry shall be established and administered by the State Economic and Trade Commission. The oil and gas fields, refining, petrochemical, chemical fertilizer, chemical fiber and other petroleum and chemical enterprises under the Ministry of Chemical Industry and the two head companies, as well as petroleum companies and gas stations, have respectively established two super large petroleum and petrochemical enterprise groups and several large fertilizer and chemical product companies in accordance with the principle of upstream and downstream integration. The State Administration of Petroleum and Chemical Industry of the People's Republic of China is the administrative body in charge of the petroleum and chemical industry under the administration of the State Economic and Trade Commission. This is known as the "National Bureau of ministry management". On February 19, 2001, the State Economic and Trade Commission held a press conference to announce another major reform and adjustment of the State Economic and Trade Commission and the State bureau of Administration. This reform abolished the administrative functions related to the state petroleum and chemical industries into the State Economic and Trade Commission. Shortly thereafter, on April 28, 2001, the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation was established as the petrochemical industry association, which was initially called the Association and later renamed the Federation.