2008 is the 30th Anniversary of the China's economic reform program. What is your overall assessment of the major achievement(s) and failure(s) of the post-Mao reforms? What could be done to solve these problems?

Résumé du document

Exactly 30 years ago, China's leaders held the Third Plenary session of the 11th Central Committee and started the Opening-up Reform of China's economy. 30 years have passed since this date, letting time for China to do tremendous changes in its economy and to become an economic model for a lot of countries which want to follow the same path of growth and development. Why did the leaders of the People's Republic of China decide to launch such a reform in 1978? The answer to this question is obvious: the planned economy established in 1949 by the Communist party began since the beginning to develop the basic problems due to such a system, shortage of consumer goods, waste of resources, technology stillness, inefficiency, poverty. After the failure of Mao's economic policies (The Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution), the principal focus of policymakers in 1978 was pragmatism; for the first time since 1949, a distinction was made between economy and politics, economic needs and ideology. What can China learn from such an experience? Have the reforms been carried out in a satisfactory way? What are the main achievements of the reform, and its failures? Is the Chinese economy reform completed, or is there still a long way to go for China to catch up with the others?

Extraits

[...] What are the main achievements of the reform, and its failures? Is the Chinese economy reform completed, or is there still a long way to go for China to catch up with others? How has the reform been carried out? After Mao's death, China's economy was seriously damaged. All sectors were concerned: shortage of goods, misallocation of resources, inefficiency and little incentive to improve efficiency, inadequacy of the production (emphasis on the industrial sector), and accumulation over consumption, heavy industry over light industry As a matter of fact four main reforms have been launched in four different sectors and D). [...]

[...] Under the purview of these administrations market oriented public enterprises became a big part of the Chinese economy: the Townships and Villages enterprises. These TVEs were given a unique ownership and a very flexible organisation. The reform of the urban sector Even if Mao's policies had emphasised the industrial sector, inefficiency of the industrial production and the absence of a real incentive mechanism have proved the damages of Mao's economy on the urban sector. Since 1978 four main directions have been taken to reform the urban sector. [...]

[...] With this reform the decision making process has been given to the factory director, not anymore to the party secretary. the whole reform of the SOEs: In 1978, policymakers decided to experiment a reform with selected SOEs given them the right to produce, to market their products and to dispose of their profits as they want. This experiment was extended to the whole country by 1984. This reform has permitted to transform the SOEs from simple and totally dependent executors of state wishes into independent actors with all the rights to lead the production process. [...]

[...] The question of the financing is not that easy, but a good and fair taxation system should permit to finance it. The failures and solutions of the macroeconomic reform Even if a commercial banking system has been created, this new system is no that efficient : indeed there is still more that 60% of the loans which goes to the SOEs nowadays because of the effect of local influences, and more because there is still a real discrimination for the non-state sector. [...]

[...] What is your overall assessment of the major achievement(s) and failure(s) of the post-Mao reforms? What could be done to solve these problems? Introduction Exactly thirty years ago, China's leaders held the Third Plenary session of the 11th Central Committee and started the Opening-up Reform of China's economy. Thirty years have passed since this date, letting time for China to do tremendous changes in its economy and to become an economic model for a lot of countries which want to follow the same path of growth and development. [...]