China Reform Report 2016
Shenzhen Innovation and Development Institute (SZIDI) released the China Reform Report 2016 on April 7th, 2017 in Beijing. President of the SZIDI Zhenhua Mao addressed the opening speech followed by chairmanof SZIDI SipingZhang, releasing and synthesizing the China Reform Report 2016. Vice president of SZIDI Jianhui Tang, and contributors of this year’s report, former director of the department of economic system reform of the national development and reform commission Jingyuan Kong, professor of the Chinese Academy of Governance Yaotong Xu, professor of school of law of Beijing Institute of Technology Xin Xu, deputy director of the national economic research institute of China Reform Foundation Xiaolu Wang, secretary-general of the academic committee of the national development and reform commission Yansheng Zhang, attended the press conference.
Entitled Perfecting Top Design, and Seek Breakthroughs in Reform, this year’s report evaluates ten major aspects of the reform process in 2016 and makes predictions on the future trend of reform in 2017 with nine policy recommendations. The report identifies 2016 as a transitional year during which series of planning and design culminate into implementation, and breakthroughs and periodical progresses rise to the surface. 2016 is a critical year for us to consolidate the achievements from the past reform efforts as well as lay a solid and healthy basis for the upcoming 19th National Congress of the CPC and further reform.
The top design of reform took shape in 2016, with notable progresses in some specific areas such as the anti-corruption campaign and supply-side structural reform. Nevertheless, the report also points out that although there have been some efforts in State-owned Enterprises reform, impressive improvements are lacking. Systematic risks increase as the institutional reform in finance slows down. Reforms in the administrative approval system proceed while the transition of the role of the government still has a long way to go. Therefore, the report indicates that the comprehensively deepening reform arrives at the breakthrough point. China will have to strike a balance between sustaining growth and structural reform, and between a steady economy and reform in 2017.
Consequently, the report proposes nine policy recommendations including: Further institutional anti-corruption to realize the strategic transition from solving the symptoms to eradicating the root cause; Prioritize reform and to relive the pressure of the obsession of economic growth on the supply-side structural reform; Clean up the zombie enterprises and to achieve institutional reform in key areas of the economy; Further the reforms in the national administrative system, in particular in the implementation of the reform of the super ministry; Call off the reform in pilot approval system, and to solve the problem in incentive mechanism; Insist the vision of Sharing in order to ensure that the achievements in reform benefit and are felt by every individual.
