The following is the 2007 Top 10 Economic Stories Selection from Economic Information Daily and Perfect China Co Ltd. The chief editors of 16 Beijing-based news organizations, including Zhu Ling, editor-in-chief of China Daily, as well as renowned local economists, put together this selection of the year’s top stories.
1. Property
The National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature, passed the Property Law of the People’s Republic of China on March 16. The law granted equal protection to public and private properties for the first time.
2. Labor
On June 29, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress passed the Labor Contract Law of the People’s Republic of China. The law requires employers to provide written contracts to their workers, restricts the use of temporary laborers and helps give more employees long-term job security. The Employment Promotion Law was issued on August 30 and will take effect on January 1, 2008. Under the law, an employer may find itself in court if it discriminates against a job applicant on the basis of sex, age, religion, race or physical disability.
3. Healthcare/Social Assistance
A series of measures were taken to solve problems concerning the well-being of citizens. On July 10, the State Council issued the guidelines to set up a pilot program to provide basic medical insurance to all urban residents. The program first came into effect in September and covered 79 cities from different provinces. The program aims to create a comprehensive health insurance system to solve medical care problems for children, the elderly, the disabled, low-income earners and the unemployed. On August 13, the State Council issued a policy framework for establishing a low-rent housing system for low-income urban families. The State Council required all cities to provide affordable housing for low-income families across the nation.
4. Sovereign fund
China established its own sovereign wealth fund, the China Investment Corp (CIC), on September 29. The fund was created to invest a portion of its $1.4 trillion in currency reserves to seek better financial returns. CIC has $200 billion to invest, including one-third of that, or about $67 billion, earmarked for overseas investments. The rest will go to investments inside China.
5. Party congress
The 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China set up a new target for the nation’s future economic and social development. The Party congress, held from October 15 to 21, set up the goal to build a moderately prosperous society in all respects. The per capita gross domestic product in 2020 should double that of 2000.
6. Stock market
The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index surpassed 6000 points and fluctuated dramatically. The Shanghai Composite Index soared to 6123 points on October 16 from below 3000 points at the beginning of the year. The Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges now have more than 130 million stock accounts.
7. Lunar probe
Chang’e I, China’s first lunar orbiter, was launched on October 24, marking a new milestone in China’s aerospace history.
8. Environment
Energy-saving and emissions reduction were added to the key indicators for evaluating the performance of government officials. For the first three quarters of the year, China’s energy intensity, or the amount of energy needed to produce a unit of GDP, declined 3 percent. China’s carbon dioxide and chemical oxygen demand emissions also declined for the first time.
9. Monetary policy
China adopted a “tight” monetary policy for the first time in 10 years. China’s consumer price index, the barometer for inflation, rose to 6.9 percent, a record high in recent years. Facing mounting inflationary pressure, the Central Economic Work Conference listed “preventing the rapidly expanding economy from overheating and structural price rises from evolving into entrenched inflation” as the top priorities for macro control. The government also shifted its monetary policy stance from “prudent” to “tight”.
10. Public holidays
The government scrapped one of the country’s three Golden Week holidays and introduced three new one-day public holidays. The new national public holiday plan adds three traditional festivals – Tomb-Sweeping Day, the Dragon Boat Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival – to the public holiday list.
