Until the late 1990 a large portion of the ministries worked primarily on developing and running the urban economy, while the rural sector was run more directly by the party bureaucracy.
For examole, untill 1998 separate ministries had charge of the metallurgical industry, the electronics industry, the transportation industry, and water resources (primarily, food-control and irrigation projects).
Over the years, the ministries have been merged and split apart by dozens of organizational changes meant to improve effectiveness as the economy and problems of administration changed, and the total number of ministries has ranged from several dozen to more than sixty.