BEIJING, March 22: Zhu Rongji, China's new premier and economic czar, is poised to launch the Chinese version of Roosevelt's "new deal" in the Communist country this year as part of his efforts to prevent China's economy from slowing down, China Daily Business Weekly reported on Sunday.Zhu, the man who stemmed China's spiralling inflation at 22 per cent in the early 1990s without stifling growth, announced at his first encounter with the international media here after assuming charge as premier this week, that China would invest heavily in improving its weak infrastructure.
"What China needs now is to restructure its economy," Zhu said noting that China intends to increase the pace of infrastructure construction in the future and to explore and open up a vast new market in its rural areas.
Zhu has made it clear that massive investment will be channeled into infrastructure, echoing former US president Roosevelt's success in reviving the American economy in the 1930s during the greatdepression.
The government has identified priority targets for investment which includes railways, highways, telecommunications, environmental protection facilities, water conservancy projects, urban construction, technical upgrading of industrial enterprises, high and new technology industries and housing.
Dai Xianglong, governor of the apex bank, People's Bank of China, has already announced that China could sustain growth in fixed asset investments of 15 per cent this year if gross domestic product (GDP) maintains a growth rate of eight per cent.
Total investment may come to nearly 361 billion US dollars this year, with central and local governments and enterprises all contributing to the government's ambitious plan, Dai, a close aide to Zhu, told correspondents here at a separate news conference.
At a time when the south-east Asia region is undergoing a slump following the unprecedented financial turmoil, China has set an ambitious economic growth rate target of eight per cent in 1998, though itis lower than the 8.8 per cent achieved in 1997. "We will strive to ensure an eight per cent economic growth rate for the country’s national economy this year," Zhu said adding that the government would also strive to keep the inflation at below three per cent.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
