In 'new era', supply-side reform will focus on quality

BEIJING－As China steps into a "new era" of development, the next chapter is beginning for the country's supply-side structural reform with a stronger focus on quality and economic rebalancing.

The reform, initiated two years ago, was considered vital to maintain stable economic growth at the recent 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.

A consensus was reached that the economy has been transitioning from a phase of rapid growth to a stage of high-quality development.

The past two years have been fruitful. Progress has being made on major tasks, including cutting excess capacity, destocking, deleveraging, reducing costs and shoring up weak areas.

These have laid the base for future reforms.

Advancing supply-side structural reform has improved the supply-demand structure, and companies have enjoyed better profitability and lower production costs, according to He Ping, statistician with the National Bureau of Statistics or NBS.

In the first three quarters of this year, industrial companies with annual revenue of more than 20 million yuan ($3 million) reported a 22.8-percent profit growth.

That was faster than 21.6 percent recorded between January and August, NBS data showed.

Efforts in supply-side structural reform have also lowered financial risks. At the end of September, the debt-asset ratio of large industrial companies had dropped 0.6 percentage points from a year ago to 55.7 percent.

But more needs to be done in a changing economic landscape. Given the solid progress, the focus will now be on improving the supply system quality, which will be key to building a modernized economy, according to economists.

After a long period of breakneck growth, the Chinese market for major products has become oversupplied, and the demand steering the economy has shifted from product quantity to quality, according to Zhang Liqun at the State Council's Development Research Center.

"It is the most important and necessary change for a new development stage," Zhang said.

In the "new era," instead of high gross domestic product, or GDP, growth, China will pursue fairness and common prosperity.

This will help support underdeveloped regions and speed up technological innovation and industrial upgrading, according to Jiang Chao, chief economist at Haitong Securities.

China has previously set targets to double its economic size in the first two decades of this century.

But these targets were not mentioned during the 19th CPC National Congress, which outlined a two-step approach to making China a great modern socialist country.

"For the economy, the most prominent problem now is growth quality, and we need to address unbalanced and inadequate development through changes in quality, efficiency and growth drivers," said Yang Weimin, deputy head of the Office of the Central Leading Group on Financial and Economic Affairs.

China will accelerate the real economy and build itself into a manufacturer of quality products, while moving its industries toward the medium-high end of the global value chain.

It will also foster a number of world-class advanced manufacturing clusters.

To bring forward the supply-side structural reform, strides are expected in both the upgrading of traditional industries and the development of emerging and high-tech industries, said Lian Ping, an economist at Bank of Communications.

Industries such as the internet, big data, and artificial intelligence will be further integrated with the real economy, Lian said.