Pingnan constructs frugal restaurants

( chinadaily.com.cn )

Updated: 2014-08-15

Lingxia township in Pingnan county, Fujian province, constructed a 'frugal restaurant' a few years ago to cut official reception costs and keep government officials from corruption.

The restaurant had cut the town's reception expenses by 500,000 yuan ($81,240) within the year of its establishment. In the first half of this year, Lingxia's reception expense have come to 200,000 yuan ($32,500), down 13 percent compared with last year.

The restaurant offers dining subsidies to government officials and provides free working meals for village officials coming on government business.

Pingnan's government now requires all townships to construct frugal restaurants along the principles of simplicity and thrift, instead of luxury and new construction.

The frugal restaurants covered the 11 towns in Pingnan by the end of June, 2014.

Pingnan also made policies to avoid waste in these restaurants. It set regulations for dining places, the number of receptionists and standards. Expensive dishes, cigarettes, wine and upmarket teas are forbidden.

The county had saved 1 million yuan ($162,500) from its official receptions by June, which will be used to improve people's living standards, including helping low-income families.