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Although the former Ministry of Post and Telecoms (MPT) and the Ministry of Electronics (MEI) have changed their names, their merged entity - the Ministry of Information Industry (MII) - remains at a primitive stage.

 Senior officials have been announced, but portfolios have not yet been assigned for vice-ministers, and the number of bureaus and support staff have yet to be decided.

 It would take at least the rest of the year to implement the plan in Beijing, and up to three years nationwide, China Research Group senior research analyst in Beijing, Ed Lanfranco, said.

 Foreign vendors, including Microsoft, said they had encountered no big problems so far with the MII.

 Digital Equipment said its only problem had been in securing a MII representative to officiate at a ceremony.

 Its greater China product manager Tony Leung said: 'Since only ministerial appointments have been made, we have to wait for the next few levels before we can resume the normal contacts and operations.'  However, one Beijing-based US analyst told Internet news service TechWeb he felt confused about who to talk to regarding information technology (IT) issues.

 He said the consolidation was not at all transparent and the time frame was not known.

 Formation of the MII is part of the mainland's plan - announced at the Ninth National People's Congress in March - to streamline central Government bureaucracy.

 The plan involves eliminating 15 ministries and commissions, and laying off half of its eight million civil servant officials.

 However, since IT and telecom industries are considered pillars of the mainland's future economy, staff lay-offs in the MII are not expected to be high.

  Authorities launched a similar reform exercise 10 years ago to combine the ministries of electronics and machinery. But the attempt ended in failure and the ministries were separated again in 1993.

 Mr Lanfranco is optimistic the formation of the MII will be carried through successfully.

 He said the merger of electronics and machinery was 'an incompatible match from the start', but the technologies involved with the MPT and MEI 'dove-tailed into each other nicely'.

 The mainland government announced the senior officials at MII last month, including one minister, five vice-ministers and one postal director-general.

 The line-up appears to be a balance between the MPT and MEI, but in reality it is seen as confirming the domination of the former MPT over MEI.

 'People at MEI are a little bit disappointed,' said Hugo Shong, who worked previously in the MEI and is now managing director in Asia and China of trade publisher International Data Group.

KEY APPOINTMENTS Senior MII officials: Minister: Wu Jichuan, 60, former MPT minister Executive vice-minister: Liu Jianfeng, 61, former MEI vice-minister Vice-ministers (in order of seniority): Yang Xianzu, 59, former MPT vice-minister; Lu Xinkui, 57, former MEI vice-minister; Qu Weizhi, 54, former MEI vice-minister; Zhou Deqiang, 56, former MPT vice-minister; Postal director-general: Liu Liqing, 57, former MPT vice-minister 



Ministries merger into MII forecast to be long process