Transition - Privatization of Chinese State-Owned Enterprises

Author: (American) Yousuf et al. (Auth.), Wang Shihua et al. (Trans.)
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2006-06-01
Features: This book reviews the experience of China's state-owned enterprise reforms since the early 1980s. Between 1978 and 1984, state-owned enterprises began to experiment with decentralization and profit-sharing. After 1988, reforms were advanced on a broader scale, but the main guiding principle remained to encourage enterprise initiative through incentive mechanisms without altering ownership. Throughout the 1980s, government-led state-owned enterprise reforms were not as exciting as the emerging township enterprises. After the 1990s, the pace of state-owned enterprise reforms in China accelerated significantly. The Southern Tour speech by Deng Xiaoping, joining the WTO, and the impact of the Asian financial crisis all accelerated the speed of China's reforms of state-owned enterprises. Compared to enterprise reforms in other transition countries, China's adherence to gradualism in the early stages of reform was very wise. This allowed China not only to avoid the decline in economic output experienced by other transforming countries but also to prevent corruption and chaos during the blind privatization process.