 |
China to Perfect Socialist Market Economic System
China will continue its reform initiatives in a bid to further perfect its socialist market economic system during the next five years, according to the Proposal of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee for Formulating the 10th Five-year Plan for National Economic and Social development.
The proposal, adopted at the CPC Fifth Plenary Session of the 15th Central Committee, which ended in Beijing last week, stresses the importance of reform, exploration and innovation to break systemic obstacles to the development of productivity.
The proposal pinpoints the reform of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) as the key link in China's economic restructuring, saying that large and medium-sized SOEs must deepen their reforms to establish a modern corporate system characterized by clear ownership, explicit rights and responsibility, disconnection between the government and enterprises, and scientific management.
Large- and medium-sized enterprises should be encouraged to embrace the share-holding system through public listings, entering joint ventures with foreign partners and cross share-holding, the proposal says.
The government will further relax its control over medium- and small-sized enterprises to inject more vigor into them, it adds.
The CPC Central Committee proposal recognizes non-public ownership as an important part of the socialist market economy and pledges to create a fair competition environment among enterprises of different ownership.
"We shall support, encourage and guide the healthy development of private enterprises, especially medium- and small-sized technology-intensive companies," the proposal says.
It also stresses the importance of establishing a unified and orderly nationwide market that allows fair competition and does not have regional blockades or monopolies by any departments or industries.
The proposal pledges to further relax government control over prices to allow the market system to play its fundamental role in resources distribution and structural adjustment.
"The means of planning, finance and banking must be used comprehensively. The leverage functions of price, tax, interest rates and exchange rates must be allowed to play their part, so as to guide and promote economic restructuring and safeguard the stable growth of the economy," the proposal says.
In the near future, the proposal says that active fiscal policy must be continued to spur corporate and social investment and stimulate consumption.
It notes that financial reforms must be deepened in order to perfect the organizational, market, supervision and macro-control control systems in the financial sector.
"A stable and healthy monetary policy must be employed for instant adjustment of money supply, safeguarding the stability of the exchange rate of Renminbi yuan, and supporting the adjustment of economic structure and economic growth," states the proposal.
It points out that China's opening up to the outside will enter a new stage during the 10th five-year-plan period.
"With China's accession to the WTO, our country will enjoy more opportunities to attract foreign capital, technology and management expertise, promote the optimization and upgrade of the industrial structure and expand our exports, while at the same time, it will face severe challenges brought on by stronger international competition," the proposal says.
To address the challenges, the proposal says China must improve its investment environment, attract more foreign capital and improve the quality of foreign investment.
The use of foreign capital must be combined with the adjustment of industrial structure, SOEs reforms and the development of the western region, it says.
China will also continue with the step-by-step opening of its banking, insurance, telecommunications, foreign trade, internal trade, tourism and other service sectors to foreign competition, and gradually apply local treatment to foreign investment projects, according to the proposal.
The country will take a positive stance toward encouraging foreign businesses, especially multinationals, to invest in its high-tech sectors and participate in the restructuring of SOEs as well as in infrastructure construction, says the proposal.
Considering the tendencies in multinational investment, China will positively explore the possibility of using medium- and long-term foreign investment in the form of acquisitions, mergers, investment funds and securities investment, the CPC proposal says.
It notes that China will also step up its supervision over financing activities in foreign currencies to prevent foreign debt risks.
The country will accelerate the clean-up, revision and perfection of its economic laws and regulations to increase its policy transparency, according to the proposal.
The proposal stresses that more attention must be given to product quality, diversifying of markets, the use of high technology and improved commodity structure in expanding China's goods and services exports.
It adds that China should also positively participate in multilateral trade systems, strengthen its regional economic cooperation, and step its economic and technology cooperation and exchange with other developing countries.
The reform of the foreign trade system must be deepened to establish a foreign trade system that complies with international practices and the specific situation in China, the proposal says.
In This Section
|