Li to officials: Move ahead with improvements

Reform is 'most powerful motivation' as well as country's 'biggest bonus'

Premier Li Keqiang urged government officials on Tuesday to deepen economic reforms steadily and move ahead to create a fair and prosperous market.

Economic reforms have stepped into "deep-water", with many interests at stake, Li told leading provincial and ministerial officials at a key workshop. Reforms face unprecedented difficulties that will require both good strategy and determination to overcome, he said.

Officials should stick to the principle that the public should benefit from reforms, Li said.

"Reform is the most powerful motivation, as well as the biggest bonus," Li told the officials at the workshop.

The premier stressed that the relationship between the government and the market should be dealt with properly, and that the market should play a decisive role in resource allocation.

Li directed the officials to continue to streamline administrative approvals or delegate them to lower levels, to deepen financial and taxation reform, to improve financial markets, to establish an open economic structure and to balance the development of urban and rural areas.

Li also urged that a long-term mechanism be established to boost domestic demand, promote modern agriculture, balance the development of different regions and upgrade the country's industrial structure.

The workshop, which was held at the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is themed to support decisions made at the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee in November.

Leading officials from ministries, provincial governments and State-owned enterprises, as well as senior People's Liberation Army officers, attended the workshop.

During the opening ceremony on Monday, President Xi Jinping told the gathering to have confidence in China's political system as reforms are pushed forward.

All seven members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee attended the opening ceremony.

The high-level workshop has become an important platform to discuss implementation of the central authorities' policies, said Liu Xutao, a professor of public administration at the Chinese Academy of Governance.

China has held such workshops about once a year for the past 15 years. The first was held in January 1999 and was attended by then-president Jiang Zemin, who focused on financial issues.

Topics at the workshops mainly center on how to put the central authorities' policies into practice and how to address key problems in the process of reform, Liu said.

Presidents have always made speeches at the opening ceremonies, while top leaders from the Standing Committee usually talk with provincial and ministerial officials to exchange ideas on key issues.

The last high-level workshop was held in November, with 334 leading officials from central ministries, provincial governments, State-owned enterprises and public institutes reviewing Xi's important speeches.

During the five-day workshop, officials were lectured by senior leaders from the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee including Liu Qibao, head of the publicity department, and Zhao Leji, head of the organization department.