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Economists praise SOE reform
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Wu Yan
HIGH praise was given by around four dozen economists for the reforms undertaken by the city's State-owned enterprises (SOEs) during a seminar on Wednesday.
At the beginning of this year, the SZ Municipal Government, based on a guiding document concerning SOE reform issued by the Central Committee of the CPC in September 1999, published Suggestions on Further Accelerating Reform and Development of State-owned Enterprises in Shenzhen and thereby launched "a new round of SOE reform".
Readjusting the layout of the State economy and restructuring SOEs are cornerstone principles of both the documents. In other words, fostering a mixed-ownership economy and enlivening small SOEs through restructuring, coalition, mergers, leasing, contract-based management, co-operative shares systems, and outright sale, will be put into practice.
A point stressed by many seminar participants is that diverse ownership is the only way out for SOE reform. And they praised the SZ document for its targeting of this crucial issue.
Yu Guangyuan, a prominent economist, said public ownership is not what makes socialism special and that a mixed-ownership economy is necessary for socialism to prosper at the primary stage where China is at present.
Lin Ling, another noted economic expert, said that diverse forms of ownership can help many SOEs that are suffering lack in vitality. He said that the success of SZ, as the "window" on China's reform and opening to the world, would be able to greatly contribute to the ideological and theoretical building of the nation as a whole.
Wang Yu, a professor with the Central Party School of the CPC, asked why, despite so many years of effort, the country's SOE reform has yet to succeed. Then he answered himself by saying that previous policies did not make clear who will benefit from such reform. He further noted that the new SZ document allows all staff members of an enterprise to hold shares. Thus, he said, with certain people as benefit-receiver, SOE reform now has renewed impetus.
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