10 years to solve wealth distribution issues: expert

BEIJING - A Chinese social studies expert said he has confidence in a wealth distribution reform that is likely to be launched later this year in China, but warned that a complete solution will require more time.

"We expect to spend 10 years streamlining the wealth distribution system and correcting unfair distributions," Zheng Gongcheng, a professor at Renmin University of China, said in an interview on Sunday with Qilu Evening News, a provincial newspaper in East China's Shandong province.

Zheng noted that low incomes for grassroots workers, the wealth gap and unfair wealth distribution are the three major problems in the country's distribution system, which have not only caused social conflicts but also undermined the people's morality and their belief in an industrious attitude.

However, the current problems have accumulated during the past several decades and there is no quick solution to the problems, Zheng said.

In the first 30 years of reform and opening up, the distribution system has put emphasis on encouraging economic development, and now it is time to attach equal attention to both expanding the wealth pool as well as fairly dividing wealth in order to sustain healthy development, the professor added.