Reuters - China's ruling party pledged to let markets play a "decisive" role in allocating resources as it unveiled a reform agenda for the next decade on Tuesday, looking to overhaul the world's second-largest economy to drive future growth.
China aims to achieve "decisive results" in its reform push by 2020, with economic changes a central focus of overall reforms, the ruling Communist Party said in a communiqué released by state media at the end of a four-day closed-door meeting of the party's 205-member Central Committee.
"The core issue is to straighten out the relationship between government and the market, allowing the market to play a decisive role in allocating resources and improving the government's role," the party said in its statement.
It added that it would set up a central leading team for "comprehensively deepening reform," responsible for "designing reform on an overall basis, arranging and co-ordinating reform, pushing forward reform as a whole, and supervising the implementation of reform plans".
In previous policy statements, the Communist Party had often described markets as playing a "basic" role in allocating resources, Xinhua news agency said, meaning the new language amounts to an upgrading of its role in the party philosophy.
"They are looking to break away from government control, allowing the markets to take the lead. In the past, prices and investment decisions were predominantly made by the government," said Dong Tao, Asia ex-Japan chief regional economist with Credit Suisse in Hong Kong.
"This is a revolutionary philosophy, by Chinese standards."
Still, the party did not issue any bold reform plans for the country's state-owned enterprises (SOEs), saying that while both state firms and the private sector were important and it would encourage private enterprise, the dominance of the "public sector" in the economy would be maintained.
While the statement was short on details, it is expected to kick off specific measures by state agencies over the coming years to reduce the role of the state in the economy.
Historically, such third plenary sessions of a newly installed Central Committee have acted as a springboard for key economic reforms, and this one will also serve as a first test of the new leadership's commitment to reform.
Among the issues singled out for reform, the party said it would work to deepen fiscal and tax reform, establish a unified land market in cities and the countryside, set up a sustainable social security system, and give farmers more property rights - all seen as necessary for putting the world's second-largest economy on a more sustainable footing.
Out of a long list of areas that the meeting was expected to tackle, most analysts have singled out a push towards a greater role of markets in the financial sector and reforms to public finances as those most likely to get immediate attention.
As part of that, Beijing is expected to push forward with capital account convertibility, and the 2020 target date for making significant strides on reform could set off expectations that the government will be looking to achieve breakthroughs on freeing up the closely managed yuan by then.
Few China watchers had expected Xi and Li to take on powerful state monopolies, judging that the political costs of doing so were just too high. Many economists argue that other reforms will have only limited success if the big state-owned firms' stranglehold on key markets and financing is not tackled.
But instead, the focus will be on indirect steps to limit the power of state behemoths and open up space for nimbler, private and foreign rivals - opening up key markets to private and foreign investment and deregulation tested in free trade zones.
Some reforms could face stiff resistance from powerful interest groups such as local governments or state-owned monopolies, people involved in reform discussions have said.
路透社11月12日報道，中國執政黨12日公布了今后十年的改革議程，保證將使市場在資源配置中起決定性作用，并將對中國——世界第二大經濟體實行徹底改革以推動其未來的發展。
中國共產黨在官方媒體發布的十八屆三中全會公報上指出，中國的目標是到2020年在推動改革上取得“決定性成果”，也指出經濟體制改革是全面深化改革的重點。日前，由205名委員組成的中央委員會在北京參加了四天的非公開會議。
公報指出，核心問題是處理好政府和市場的關系，使市場在資源配置中起決定性作用和更好地發揮政府的作用。
公報還指出，中央將成立全面深化改革領導小組，負責改革總體設計、統籌協調、整體推進、督促落實。
在之前的政策聲明中，中國共產黨常稱市場在資源配置中起“基礎性”作用，新華社表示，這一表述上的變化意味著市場將在黨的哲學體系中發揮更大的作用。
“人們在試圖尋找脫離政府控制的出路，旨在允許市場來起主導作用。過去，價格和投資決定都是由政府來做。”瑞士信貸亞洲區首席經濟學家陶冬說道。
“以中國的標準來講，這就是一個革命性的突破。”
不過，中國共產黨并沒有公布針對國企改革的大膽方案，公告指出國有企業和私營部門都很重要，它會鼓勵私營企業，而“國營部門”在經濟中的支配作用也將繼續保持下去。
盡管公告細節不足，接下來的幾年中國家機構有望實行具體措施，減弱國家在經濟中的作用。
歷史上，新成立的中央委員會召開的三中全會都是主要經濟改革的跳板，這一次的三中全會也將作為首次測試以考驗新領導集體改革的決心。
在改革方面，公告指出將深化財政、稅收改革，建立城鄉統一的土地市場，建立可持續的社會保障制度，賦予農民更多財產權力，這些都是中國實現可持續發展所必不可少的措施。
在期待全會解決的一長串領域中，大多數分析師挑選出最可能得到人們及時關注的問題：促進市場在金融領域發揮更大的作用以及改革公共財政。
同時，人們也希望中央能推動資本項目可兌換的進程，而在改革上取得長足發展的2020年目標也讓人們翹首企盼：到那時，政府在開放嚴格控制的人民幣上將取得突破性進展。
很少有中國事務觀察家曾預料到習主席和李總理會針對強大的國有壟斷企業，畢竟這樣做的政治成本太高。不少經濟學家認為，如果大型國有企業對主要市場和融資的束縛沒有得到解決，那其他改革的成功則會受到一定的限制。
相反，未來焦點將會集中在非直接方式限制國有大型企業，向小型企業、私營企業、外國企業開放市場，向私營和外商資本開放核心投資市場，放松在自由貿易區已經試驗過的一些管制。
參與改革討論的人們表示，一些改革可能會面臨強大利益集團（如當地政府或國有壟斷企業）的頑強抵抗。 |
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