1. China's cabinet set a timetable for reform of the country's pricing mechanism on Thursday. China will lift price controls over basically all goods and services in competitive sectors by 2017, according to guidelines released by the State Council. By then, government-set prices will only exist for key utility services, public-good programs and network industries featuring natural monopolies, such as electricity and water supply. By 2020, China should have a sound pricing mechanism in which the market plays a decisive role, rational and transparent pricing regulations and a well-enforced anti-monopoly law.
2. China's Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MOHRSS) and the Ministry of Finance (MOF) are formulating measures to collect idle pension funds from local governments in a bid to realize unified investment operation by the central government, the Economic Information Daily reported on Friday. Industrial insiders deem that provinces and municipalities with relatively higher amount of idle pension funds, such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Beijing, are expected to be among the first to test such unified operation by the central government.
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