Nobel laureates and the Beijing mayor addressed issues as diverse as the optimum population figure for the capital, traffic congestion and inheritance tax on the last day of an historic forum.

Beijing is under great population pressure, Mayor Wang Qishan told four economics winners at the Nobel Laureates Beijing Forum. The three-day gathering of seven Nobel laureates and five other distinguished economists ended yesterday.

"The ideal population figure for Beijing in 2020 is 18 million, according to the urban layout for the capital city which was approved by the State Council earlier this year," Wang said during a dialogue between the laureates and senior Beijing municipal officials.

In total, the permanent population figure - including those who have lived in Beijing for at least six months is 14.97 million, according to the mayor. If recent arrivals are taken into account, the figure would be nearly 17 million, he said.

Robert A. Mundell, a winner in 1999, responded: "Big cities will face big problems, with for example, water supply and pollution."

James Mirrlees, who won the Nobel in 1996, said it is difficult to come up with a reasonable figure for the right population size in 2020.

As the discussion veered to increasing traffic in the city, Vernon L. Smith, the 2002 winner, raised the possibility of using a pricing system for road usage to ease congestion.

The Beijing mayor also said that the Chinese mainland will not collect inheritance tax soon. Wang, who in 2001 was involved in high-level discussions on the subject, said yesterday there were some barriers to collect such a tax on the Chinese mainland.

"First, the personal income of some Chinese is not transparent enough," he said.

"The second is the unique Chinese culture parents may buy a house for children soon after they are born."

Whether a house should be included while calculating personal property is also a problem, the mayor said.

Earlier, while addressing a group of experts with the Development Research Centre of the State Council late Tuesday, Mundell urged China not to retaliate against Europe and the United States' restriction imports of some Chinese textile goods, Xinhua reported.

Mundell, father of Euro and an advocate of a stable Chinese currency, said the best policy for China is to express disappointment and maybe concerns about the (US and European) policy, which he described as offensive to the rule of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

"It doesn't fit into the WTO rule, and it's illegal. They are doing a bad thing," said Mundell.

He said the recent restrictions is going to require a big adjustment in China, and it would have negative impact on employment in some areas in China.

(China Daily June 2, 2005)