China's current economic transition is urgent. State-owned enterprises face a new round of restructuring, and the industrial structure in China waits to be adjusted. But before action, there needs to be careful planning.

At the Guangzhou Net Products Fair 2010, Ma Yun, the leader of Alibaba Group, said the development of net goods trade could threaten state-owned enterprises rather than private enterprises. Logistics have become a decisive factor in the growth of electronic commerce.

Currently, with changing lifestyles, market trends transform. People of all ages are throwing themselves into online shopping. But the state-owned logistics enterprises usually take time off on weekends and holidays. Private delivery companies are finding their business volumes increasing daily, yet being small in scale they find it difficult to meet the demands.

Ma Yun's words not only expressed hope that state-owned enterprises should participate in the transforming market but also hit the point of urging an intensive adjustment to the industrial structure in today's China.

Although structural adjustment has become commonplace in recent years, the changes are still just in form, not in content.

In many regions, restructuring means infrastructure reconstruction, which rapidly increases the financial deficit and debt problem of the local governments.

Additionally, the reforms of some state-owned enterprises are not based on the changing market. In fact, state-owned enterprises must match the development of online purchases. Private enterprises should make full use of the abundant resources of state-owned enterprises. This will be for the joint development and mutual benefit of the economies of state-owned and private enterprises.

Furthermore, investment projects in some areas are frequently replaced, while updating the idea of economic development is slow. If the restructuring fell into a "superficial change" position, it would surely get a poor result which might directly affect the economy of the entire country.

Enterprises know where the market stands, and those private companies who struggle for survival must know more clearly. Ma Yun's words are a recipe for today's structural adjustment, and could be useful to those enterprises and regions who seek real change.

(This post was first published in Chinese and translated by Lin Liyao.)