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Perfect
Socialist Market Economic SystemSpeed up
WesternDevelopment
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China will continue
its reform initiatives in a bid to improve its socialist market
economic system during the next five years, according to the
Proposal of the CPC Central Committee for Formulating the 10th
Five-year Plan for National Economic and Social development.
The proposal stressed the importance of reform, exploration
and innovation to break systematic obstacles to the development
of productivity.
The proposal pinpointed the reform of 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 shareholding system through public listings, entering joint
ventures with foreign partners and cross shareholding, the proposal
said.
The government will further relax its control over small and
medium-sized enterprises to inject more vigor into them, it
added.
The CPC Central Committee proposal recognized non-public ownership
as an important part of the socialist market economy and pledged
to create a fair competitive environment among enterprises of
different ownerships.
"We shall support, encourage and guide the healthy development
of private enterprises, especially small and medium-sized technology-intensive
companies," the proposal said.
It also stressed the importance of establishing a unified and
orderly nationwide market that allows fair competition and does
not have monopolies.
The proposal pledged to further relax government control over
prices to allow the market system to work.
"The means of planning, finance and banking must beusedcomprehensively.
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 said.
In the near future, the proposal said an active fiscal policy
must be continued to spur corporate and social investment and
stimulate consumption.
It noted that financial reforms must be deepened in order to
perfect the organizational, market, supervision and macro-control
systems in the financial sector.
"A stable and healthy monetary policy must be employed
for the instant adjustment of money supply, safeguarding the
stability of the exchange rate of the renminbi , and supporting
the adjustment of economic structure and economic growth,"
stated the proposal.
It pointed 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 upgrading
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 said.
To address the challenges, the proposal said 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, the reform of SOEs and the development
of the western regions, it said.
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 towards 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, said the proposal.
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 said.
It noted 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 stressed that more attention must be given to product
quality, the diversification of markets and the use of high
technology in expanding China's goods and services exports.
It adds that China should also positively participate in multilateral
trade systems, strengthen regional economic cooperation, and
step up its economic and technological cooperation and exchanges
with other developing countries.
The reform of the foreign trade system must be deepened to establish
a system that complies with international practices and the
specific situation in China, the proposal said.
China will further step up the development of the resource-rich
western areas to promote a coordinated development among different
regions of the country, according to the proposal.
The implementation of the western development strategy is of
great significance to the country's economic development, national
solidarity and social stability. It is also a key step in achieving
the country's strategic goal of building a well-to-do society
in all areas of life in the new century.
The proposal pointed out that western development is an "arduous"
historic task, which should be fulfilled with both a sense of
urgency and long-term effort.
"Within five to 10 years, China expects to achieve a breakthrough
in the infrastructure construction and environmental development
in the western region to create a good start for western development,"
the proposal said.
To achieve these goals, the proposal said, more effort should
be made to build key projects in communications, water conservation,
telecommunications, power and urban facilities as well as the
project to pipe natural gas and transmit electricity from the
west to the eastern areas.
Concrete measures should be taken step by step to improve the
environment and production conditions in the west, the proposal
noted.
The Chinese Government will increase funds in this regard to
support the implementation of the western development strategy,
and more funds will be channeled to the region populated by
ethnic minorities, the proposal stresses.
The proposal urged that the industrial and urbanization process
be promoted and new economic growth opportunities pursued to
fully tap the western areas' resources.
As a complementary region to the west, the eastern areas are
urged to play a more significant role in driving the country's
economic development. Some areas in the east with better development
conditions will be encouraged to achieve modernization goals
ahead of others, according to the proposal.
(China Daily 10/19/2000)
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