Learning keywords is one of the best ways to keep abreast of the latest developments in a country. The China Academy of Translation, a research institute affiliated with the China International Publishing Group, the country's leading international publisher, regularly analyzes prevailing Chinese terms in various sectors and translates them into a number of foreign languages ranging from English to Arabic. In each issue, Beijing Review presents a selection of these keywords to help readers know more about China.

Supply-side reform

The importance of "supply-side reform" was emphasized by President Xi Jinping at the 11th meeting of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Leading Group for Financial and Economic Affairs on November 10, 2015. Supply-side policies, which focus on supply and production, are often discussed in contrast to a demand-side approach. To improve supply-side performance is to encourage productivity and maintain a competitive edge, with greater innovation, the decommissioning of obsolete manufacturing, less overcapacity, and lower tax rates, so as to stimulate economic growth.

This reform places greater emphasis on optimizing the economic structure and enhancing the efficiency of all contributing factors. To this end, measures will be implemented to streamline government and delegate powers, relax macro-regulation, spur innovation, and reform the financial sector, land use rights, and state-owned enterprises.

Widespread entrepreneurship and innovation

At the Central Economic Work Conferences—the annual meeting of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, China's cabinet, to set the national economic agenda—in December 2014, President Xi called for efforts to create an environment at the institutional level that would foster entrepreneurship and innovation.

Three months before that, at the Summer Davos Forum in Tianjin in north China, Premier Li Keqiang had said that China would encourage the widest possible participation in entrepreneurial activities and help stimulate innovation at the grassroots level.

Promoting entrepreneurship and innovation would create more jobs, increase people's incomes, boost social mobility, and contribute to social equity and justice. This would in turn encourage individuals to further pursue their ideals and realize their full potential while generating higher levels of wealth.

Streamlining government work and delegating authority

Streamlining government work aims to eliminate overstaffing and address the duplication or overlapping of state functions in order to resolve problems such as the inadequate provision of social public goods and services and the lack of efficiency. Delegating authority intends to cut red tape that subjects businesses to a complex and lengthy government approval process. This would free the government from unnecessary supervision to focus on what really falls within its purview, especially duties it has not performed adequately.

The initiative to streamline government functions and delegate authority will rationalize the relationship between the government and the market, giving the market a bigger role in allocating resources. This will result in reform, restructuring and improving people's well-being. Shifting the focus from pre-implementation approval to monitoring, during and after project implementation, calls for a more detail-oriented and better-targeted supervisory function of the government. It's a change that is a challenge for government departments. There is now a need for a paradigm shift and enhanced capacity-building. It is vital to develop a forward-looking vision and be proactive in gauging market dynamics to amplify the positive effects of market drivers and minimize the negative influence of any market failure in a timely manner.

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