Private economy deserves fair treatment for prosperity, says a signed article in China Youth Daily. An excerpt follows:

Zhao Youshan, director of the Petroleum Flow Committee of the China General Chamber of Commerce, revealed recently that a total of 90 private oil companies were negotiating with nine transnational oil giants for cooperation and some 15 companies had already signed agreements.

Why are these private companies willing to be merged with foreign companies? The monopoly on oil exploitation and imports by large State-owned oil companies is the major reason behind private companies choosing to retreat.

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China opened up its oil market this year. But the Measures for Administration of the Market of Processed Oil further lifted the threshold for private companies entering the oil market. Among the eight companies that were granted oil product wholesale licenses this year, only one is privately-owned. The private sector has been marginalized in the oil industry.

And it is just a miniature of the private economy's situation in China. Though experts have been calling for the break of monopoly and the State has issued policies giving more survival space for the private sector, the situation is not optimistic. Besides the high entry threshold, the current taxation policies also burden private companies.

The discrimination against private companies has impeded the public from enjoying high-efficiency services provided by full competition and hampered the development of China's private sector.