The central government on Sunday decided to reduce its workforce to 817,202 by the end of March 2002 by shedding 23,701 jobs from March next year in a bid to streamline the administration, government officials said.

The decision, made during an extra Cabinet meeting, is the first step in a plan to cut central government staff by some 130,000 in 10 years starting in fiscal 2001, which starts April 1.

However, 17,713 of the 23,701 are employees in 57 government entities that will be transformed in April into independent administrative corporations modeled after the British executive agency system.