China's legislature, the NPC, formally approved a reform bill Saturday that provides for the setting up of five "super-ministries", including a new Ministry for Industry and Information (MII).
The beefed-up MII now has carriage of industry development across all of the telecom, IT and electronics sectors as part of the national policy of combining "industralization" and "informatization".
In its biggest win in the bureaucratic turf wars, it has taken over ICT industry regulation functions from the state planning body, the NDRC, whose focus is now on the macro-economy.
The NDRC, the MII's rival for control over telecom and IT development in the last half decade, is to "fade out from involvement in micromanagement of the economy and reduce its examination and approval of specific projects," Xinhua said.
The two departments squabbled last year over regulation of the over-supplied domestic handset sector, with the MII calling for a stop to the issue of new manufacturing licenses and the NDRC deregulating to allow the market to drive consolidation.
The MII also acquired the functions of the State Council Informatization Office, the defense science and technology group Costindo and - incongruously - the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration.
The ministry, which is still headed by Wang Xudong, has set up a new State Defense Technologies Industry Bureau to develop defense and security-related ICTs.
The reform bill passed with a vote of 2,744 for, 117 against and 99 abstentions. It also created "super ministries" for energy, transport and environmental protection.
Despite claims that the restructure would slim down bureaucracy and improve efficiency, the number of agencies under the State Council has been reduced by just one to 27.