Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli reaffirmed to a group of visiting senior foreign executives and officials on Sunday that the country will introduce market-based interest rates and a market-based exchange rate for the yuan currency.
Zhang, speaking at the annual China Development Forum, said China will "introduce a modern and competitive market system with fair and open market rules". He provided no details.
China's central bank will focus on liberalizing bank deposit rates over the next two years, while loosening its grip on the yuan currency to give greater influence to market forces, a vice governor of the People's Bank of China said on Saturday.
Central bank chief Zhou Xiaochuan said earlier this month deposit rates were likely to be liberalized in one to two years. The central bank already allows banks to set their own lending rates, but in practice they do not have full freedom because of controls on deposit rates.
Zhang added that a key government priority will be fiscal and tax reform, including development of "an open and standardized budget system", which is crucial as China moves to address issues associated with local government debt and local government finance.
China's local governments are responsible for 85 percent of total government expenditure but collect less than 50 percent of the country's total revenues, according to statistics compiled by the Asian Development Bank.
Zhang also said the government was moving forward with updating its value-added tax, excise and consumption tax.
Zhang said that a "fair and unified tax system" was needed.
China Development Forum, which was initiated in 2000 by the Development Research Center of the State Council, serves as a platform for business and academic leaders to interact with China's top policy makers.
This year's forum, with the theme "China: To Comprehensively Deepen Reform," opened on Sunday.
China to start new economic journey: IMF chief
China is about to embark on the next phase of a remarkable economic journey, aiming for higher quality and more sustainable growth, the IMF chief said Sunday.
"The journey has propelled it to the top tier of the global economy and lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty in a remarkably short period of time," Christine Lagarde, managing director of the IMF, told the China Development Forum that kicked off in Beijing on Saturday.
"This new transformation will come with three key dimensions - a firm destination, a clear roadmap and a deep sense of global responsibility," Lagarde said.
After showing great economic leadership, especially during the recent global financial crisis, China has its eyes fixed firmly on its next destination - aiming for "higher quality, more inclusive, and more sustainable" growth, said the IMF chief.
Reform plans that came out of the Third Plenum of the Communist Party of China's 18th Central Committee plot a course to this destination. "These reforms are ambitious. They will require hard decisions and tradeoffs, but I am confident that China will rise to the challenge - as it has always done," Lagarde said.
"As China's share in the global economy continues to rise, so will its responsibility in supporting the global common good - global financial stability, environmental sustainability, and the global rules of the game. The IMF will be a key forum for this kind of global cooperation, and I welcome a strengthened partnership with China," she added.
China to launch unified property registration
China will launch unified national property registration this year to regulate the real estate market and push forward urbanization.
Registration rules will be drafted and submitted by June to the State Council, China's Cabinet, and are expected to take effect this year, Hu Cunzhi, vice minister of land and resources, said on Saturday at the China Development Forum in Beijing.
The land registration system will be a more specific following a guideline in the urbanization plan released on March 16. The plan for urbanizing until 2020 builds a national network for real estate ownership,to reduce speculation and help needy people buy their own homes.
The ministry is working on a state land market for construction purposes, granting land owners the same rights and benefits, whether they are urbanites or country dwellers. The market will make land expropriation easier and help migrant workers settle in cities in an orderly manner.
Hu guaranteed four bottom lines: collective ownership for rural land, a fixed amount of arable land, stable grain output; and farmers' interests.
