BEIJING - China's Ministry of Finance on Thursday made public the catalogue of administrative approval items as part of its effort to become more open and transparent.

The 18 approval items in the catalogue include government procurement, tax reduction and exemption, and foreign loans.

The information on the website of the Ministry, includes why the approval items have been chosen, whether there are sub-approval items, who has to go through the approval process, and the categories of the approval.

The catalogue is made public so that people can monitor the process by phone, email or letter.

It comes after the State Council asked central government departments earlier this month to clarify administrative approval.