The top planning body is considering opening the state-monopolized oil market to the private sector players, a senior official said yesterday.

"We are studying the possibility of gradually opening up the oil market to allow competition," said Bi Jingquan, vice-minister of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

"Private enterprises will be guided into investing into building transfer and storage facilities for petroleum businesses."

He made these comments in response to a proposal put forward by political advisors calling for private enterprises to contribute to the development of the country's national oil reserves.

Instead of a top-down national scheme, the decision to discuss the possibility partly liberalizing the oil market originated in a proposal put forward by Xu Zhiming, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Committee (CPPCC), China's top advisory body.

Xu last year rejected the so-called "China energy threat", according to which Chinese demand for fuel would push up global oil prices, and suggested that private enterprises should participate in the development of national petroleum reserves.

Bi said the NDRC always attached great importance to proposals from CPPCC members.

He made the comment during a gathering yesterday to address proposals.

Altogether, 4,448 proposals were referred yesterday to more than 150 sponsoring governmental departments, which are to formulate responses by the end of August.

Members of the fifth session of the 10th National Committee of CPPCC, which wrapped up last Thursday, had forwarded the proposals.

The NDRC, the ministry-level planning body, usually handles the most. Last year it received 964.

"Attentively addressing the goals in the proposals is an important means for us to promote work efficiency," Bi said. "We will approach our work with these proposals with a great sense of responsibility and modesty."

In the coming five months government departments are expected to categorize the proposals into three types: Those addressing issues that have already been solved or have otherwise been adopted; those that have already been factored into planning; and those that are to be saved for reference.

The proposals can be put into practice either by an individual department or jointly by several, said Li Guixian, vice-chairman of the CPPCC National Committee.

Because this was the final year of the five-year-long 10th CPPCC, a conference to summarize the government's progress in developing the proposals will be held in the latter half of this year.

Outstanding proposals and sponsoring departments will be identified and praised.

Known as government think tanks, CPPCC committees at all levels are made up of activists and public figures from various walks of life.

Li said members' proposals helped the State make scientific and democratic decisions, especially since the quality of the proposals had been improving and becoming more practical.

Government departments handled more than 98 percent of the 5,158 proposals submitted last year.

Feng Shouming, an official at the Ministry of Communications, said the ministry paid equal attention to proposals from CPPCC members and motions from delegates to the National People's Congress.

"Some proposals are of a very high quality since they are based on abundant research and investigations, such as those from some non-Communist parties," Feng said.

(China Daily March 23, 2007)