1. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has urged state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to press ahead with reforms to unlock vitality. The SOEs are an important foundation for national development but are in urgent need of reforms as languid mechanism and poor management have resulted in declining profits, Premier Li said last Friday while presiding over a meeting on SOE reforms.
2. China issued a guideline last Thursday to open the economy wider to the outside world. A negative list, which identifies sectors and businesses that are off-limits for investment, will be issued, and certain controls will be loosened, according to a document released by the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council. The service sector -- including finance, education, culture and health care -- will be more accessible to foreign investors, while restrictions on child- and old-age care, architectural design, accounting, auditing, logistics and e-commerce will be lifted.
3. China's housing market continued recovering from a prolonged downturn in July, with new home prices marking a year-on-year rise for the first time since last September. Of the 70 large and medium-sized cities surveyed, new home prices climbed month on month in 35, up from 31 the previous month, with 26 reporting month-on-month price declines, down from July's 29, according to data released last Friday by the National Bureau of Statistics.
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