A research institute to standardize and improve the working style of officials was set up on Sunday in Beijing.

The institute was established after Xi Jinping pledged to address bureaucracy on his first speech on Nov 15, after being elected general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.

The Administrative Culture Committee — the first of its kind in the country — is a department of the China Society of Administrative Reform, which studies both theoretical and practical issues concerning the country's administrative reform.

Zhou Wenzhang, director of the committee, said it will be a long-term task to foster the consciousness among public servants to serve the people.

China's new leader Xi said that the Party faces severe challenges, and that there are many pressing problems within the Party that need to be resolved, including corruption, losing touch with the people's concerns, being sticklers for formalities, and bureaucracy.