Rational Thoughts on Reforming State-Owned Enterprises

The problem of reforming state-owned enterprises [SOEs] is currently a most critical issue in our country's economic development and economic reform; one may say that it is also a major and difficult hurdle that confronts us. At the moment, the large numbers of nonâstate-owned enterprises in our country, for the most part, are already basically able to operate in accordance with market-economic principles; what seriously lags behind are the SOEs. To date, with the exception of an extremely small number, the SOEs are still incompatible with the development of socialized mass production and with the market economy. Unless we break through this barrier, not only will we be unable to establish a socialist market economic system, but we will also be unable to bring about a benign cycle in the economy as a whole, or sustained, speedy, and healthy development.