China resolves to check govt power

BEIJING - Government omnipotence, which has become an obstacle to efficiency after powering China's staggering growth in past decades, is expected to be addressed in reforms outlined by the country's new leadership for the next decade.

The market is widely anticipating plans on the transformation of government functions to be formed at the upcoming Third Plenary Session of the 18th Communist Party of China Central Committee, which is renowned as a springboard for major national reforms.

"Letting the government manage everything had the merit of efficiency at a time when China's economic aggregate and private production were both severely under-developed," said Chi Fulin, head of the China Institute for Reform and Development.

But it has lost its advantage in today's market economy, he added.

An official opposition

The Chinese government, local authorities in particular, with their role as decision-maker, investor, franchiser, regulator and supervisor all in one, has oriented the growth of the economy, which awed the world with two-digit expansion in the past 30 years.

This model, which once won widespread praise because of its efficiency, has now become a target of public complaints, as it has interfered excessively with the market and society.

For example, in Zhengzhou city of Central China's Henan province, an expectant mother surnamed Zhang has made 20 visits to the local residential community this year in order to obtain a birth certificate for her soon-to-be-born baby.

For Kong Lingmin, a project manager at a real estate development company in South China's Hainan province, the biggest headache was the need to deal with lots of different government departments to complete the acceptance process for a project, although the time taken for this has recently been reduced from six months to 10 working days.

What's worse, such practices have also led to pivotal issues like overcapacity, environmental pollution, the local government debt crisis and market malfunctions, raising the stakes for a weakening economy that has already faltered amid global economic woes.

Against the backdrop of today's economy with its diversified players, the government-led growth model has increasingly hindered China's ongoing economic restructuring efforts, according to Chi.

The old growth model has left Chinese government with little choice but to carry out reforms that start with itself, added Wang Xiaoguang, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Governance.

Growth of the world's second-largest economy eased to 7.7 percent in the first three quarters of the year.