Govt–market relations key to economic reforms

Economic reforms should be grounded on proper relations between the market and government intervention, which newly-released guidelines following a four-day key Party meeting are aiming for, a researcher said.

Zhou Tianyong, a researcher from the Party School of the Central Committee of CPC made his remarks when commenting on the communiqué that pinpointed reform directions after the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of CPC concluded on Tuesday.

The communiqué acknowledged the market's "decisive" role in allocating resources, which many experts hailed as a leap from "basic," a standard adjective that had been used since the country decided to build a socialist market economy in 1992.

Thus the communiqué, though still cautious about State-owned enterprises (SOEs), took an unprecedented word choice as it required "vigor" of SOEs, the dominating force of China's economy. SOEs, according to Zhou, often go dormant when vying for business opportunities with private firms.

The meeting also decided to establish a unified land market in cities and countryside as part of an economic overhaul package, a move Zhou deemed as significant to build a freer market.

Reforms, however, are not expected to go through smoothly, with clashes ahead with vested interests, said Zhou, when asked about concerns over barriers facing the new leadership.