Supply-side reform efforts to be boosted

China will press ahead with supply-side structural reform with more effort focusing on reining in excessive production capacity, reducing corporate costs and improving the environment for innovation.

The decision was made at a State Council executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday, after hearing a report on the fourth round of State Council nationwide inspections.

The inspection, conducted by the State Council General Office between June and August, is aimed at ensuring that tasks put forward by the central economic work conference and the Government Work Report are implemented in full.

The cutting of surplus production capacity will be prioritized, with special focus on weeding out substandard steel production. Corporate costs will be trimmed by applying standards and supervision to fees levied by sectoral associations and similar organizations.

"We need to give full play to inspection in its role of spurring implementation and development, to break the bottlenecks in the last mile of policy implementation, clearing all hurdles in the way of various policies," Li said.

The inspection found that the ongoing supply-side structural reform is progressing in a steady manner as the economic structure keeps optimizing.

The inspection also found problems such as excessive production capacity cuts in arrears, deficiencies in business environments, and bottlenecks in the transformation of R&D findings to products.

"The problems found in the inspection process should be addressed as early as possible, with results to be delivered for problems such as the resurgence of shut down production capacity, excessive fees levied on enterprises, obstacles to foreign investment and long delays for approvals of some investment programs," Li said.