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Strategies & Market Trends : China Warehouse- More Than Crockery -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RealMuLan who wrote (952)	10/8/2003 7:21:24 PM
From: RealMuLan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6370

China to tackle major flaws 1. The way the central government is run 2. The weak banking and financial sector 3. The failing state-owned enterprises By Ching Cheong HONG KONG - Several key decisions on deepening China's economic reform are expected at an important meeting to be convened by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from Saturday. They include strategies to overhaul the central government's operations, the weak banking and financial sector and failing state-owned enterprises (SOEs). These three have been widely perceived as the hardest nuts to crack as China marches further down the reform road. Sources say top party leader Hu Jintao has taken personal charge of the drafting of the strategy. Officially, very little has been said about the meeting, the third plenary session of the CCP's 16th central committee elected last November. All Xinhua News Agency said in a terse announcement was that a resolution on furthering economic reform would be adopted. But those familiar with CCP history know that several key decisions that changed China's destiny were taken at third plenums. Two examples are patriarch Deng Xiaoping's open-door policy in 1978 and former president Jiang Zemin's adoption of the market economy in 1993. Mr Hu, who assumed the top party post last November and the state presidency this March, is under pressure to leave a similar mark. He has assembled a top team to draft an economic reform resolution - his main aide Ling Jihua, deputy director of the CCP's Central Office; Dr Wang Huning, director of Central Policy Research Office; Professor Zheng Bijian, former deputy head of the Central Party School; and Professor Wang Luolin, vice-president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. They have zeroed in on the three areas as the ones with 'unbelievably and unexpectedly' strong vested interests most resistant to change. They see the initial inept handling of the Sars outbreak as proof of a systemic weakness in the way the central government operates, sources say. Similarly, they regard widespread industrial unrest in the 'rust zones' in north-east China as evidence of the threat which failing SOEs can pose to the country's stability. As for the problem-ridden banking and financial sector, they fear it will be China's Achilles' heel, bringing down the entire economy, once it is opened up under the terms of Chinese accession to the World Trade Organisation. Mr Hu believes these are major stumbling blocks to China's development of a sophisticated market economy to achieve the 2020 aim of a reasonably well-off society, as defined by a per capita income of US$3,000 (S$5,200). His predecessor as CCP leader, Mr Jiang, once vowed to have all these obstacles removed within the first 20 years of the 21st century. Non-government experts are less optimistic. For example, Dr Fan Gang, director of the Institute of National Economy under the China Reform Foundation, an unofficial think-tank, thinks it would take 30 to 50 years. Whether 20 or 50 years, Mr Hu is determined to start the ball rolling. straitstimes.asia1.com.sg