REFORM PROPOSALS IN CHINA

CHINA SEEKS ECONOMIC REFORM PROPOSALS

Clifford Coonan

The Irish Times, Oct 23, 2012

WITH JUST weeks to go until a once-in-a-decade leadership change, China’s leaders have called on the country’s main research institutes to come up with proposals for cutting back the state-owned enterprises that dominate the economy.

The think tanks have also been asked to find ways to free up the setting of interest rates and making the yuan currency more convertible internationally, as well as freeing up state control of land and basic resources.

The transition at the top of the Communist Party will begin on November 8th, at the party’s 18th congress, when vice-president Xi Jinping, who visited Ireland earlier this year, is widely expected to take over from Hu Jintao as president, with Li Keqiang replacing Wen Jiabao as premier.

Diplomatic sources said Mr Xi has commissioned from the think tanks a number of studies on how to reform the economy, but it is not clear how much influence they will have.

China has had double-digit economic expansion for more than three decades following the reforms of former supreme leader Deng Xiaoping, but the current administration has delayed what analysts see as necessary liberalisations to the economy.

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