[photopress:800px_PLA_soldiers.jpg,full,alignright]The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is to let some of its logistics services be handled by private contractors.
General Liao Xilong, the head of the PLA, said a 12-point plan for reform of the logistics services has been approved by Chinese President Hu Jintao, who is also the Chairman of the Central Military Commission.
The plan includes allowing the PLA to rent commercial vehicles for official activities, allowing service personnel to use civil telecommunications services for personal purposes and employing civilian schools to train technicians.
The Central Military Commission has also decided to privatize the management of barracks for troops stationed in large and middle-sized cities, hiring private warehouses for the storage of general-purpose materials.
The PLA will also reduce the number of hotels, guesthouses and training centers that it runs to the minimum. At the same time the number of the equipment repair units will be scaled down and the PLA’s research and development institutions will be transformed into civil and military dual-purpose organizations.
The 1.2 million-strong PLA has a defense budget of nearly $44 billion. This new move will bring some massive cost benefits and efficiencies which seems to be the whole point of the exercise.
Source: Press TV