BEIJING, April 18 (UPI) -- China updated its economic priorities and at the top of the list is to change the ownership structure of its many floundering state-owned enterprises.
Although private enterprise is credited for much of China's spectacular economic progress, with growth rates around 8 percent in recent years, it is still the state that dictates the priorities, as it did for 2004 in its Third Plenary Conference of the Sixteenth Party Congress.
The No. 1 priority includes what was called adjustment and improvement of the ownership structure of state-owned enterprises, a new emphasis for their transformation into stock ownership structures and the integration of more foreign and private investment, the official Xinhua news service reported.
What was described as mixed ownership is being "greatly encouraged." The state-owned enterprises are mainly in the areas of power generation, telecommunications, aviation, railroads and mail delivery.
The No. 2 priority for the year is to deepen reform in rural areas, and No. 3 is to rebuild the nation's financial architecture, including taxation and banking.
