Planned reforms for China's massive public institutions will not decrease their size or weaken their capacity to provide public services, according to an official statement issued on Tuesday.

Chinese public institutions cover sectors such as education, science, culture, health, agriculture, forestry, water conservation and mass media.

The fundamental goal of the reforms is to promote the delivery of quality social services, not to cut staff or shut the institutions down, according to a joint statement issued by several central authorities following a high-profile reform guideline released on Monday.

The guideline sets a timetable for the reforms, highlighting the transformation of two types of institutions for the purpose of reducing the government's financial burden.

Public institutions with administrative roles will be merged into government departments, while those with business operations will be gradually transformed into enterprises, the guideline said, adding that the rest of the country's institutions will retain their current status.

The Tuesday statement also clarified the relation between the guideline and ongoing reforms in multiple sectors, including education, science, culture, health and media.

The new reforms will not replace the ongoing ones, although all of the reforms should be linked with each other within each sector, the statement said.

(Xinhua News Agency April 18, 2012)