China will open up more industries, including oil
drilling and defense technology, to private investors to cope with slowing
private investment growth, Xinhua-run Economic Information Daily reported Monday.
The government will also lure private investment
into strategic emerging industries by setting up industrial investment funds,
according to the report.
Nur Bekri, head of the National Energy
Administration, told the newspaper that the reform plan of the oil and gas
industry had gained government approval and would soon be released. The sector
will open its competitive operations to private investment as per this year's
government work report.
"Access restriction is one of the major factors
that constrain China's private investment, especially in the energy and
military industries," said Li Wei, head of the Development Research Center
of the State Council.
Private investment is even encouraged in the defense
science and technology industries, including China's Chang'e-4 lunar probe
mission, which aims to be mankind's first soft landing on the far side of the
moon in around 2018.
"Widening access for private capital to enter
these industries, together with improved regulation, will both boost
development efficiency and stimulate private investment growth," Li said.
Growth in private investment slowed to 3.2 percent
year on year in 2016, 6.9 percentage points lower than in 2015, due to poor
performance in manufacturing, service and mining sectors, as well as continued
price decline of investment in fixed assets. But the downward trend was
reversed after the government moved to spur growth, with private investment
recording growth of 6.7 percent in the first two months of the year.
China's local governments are also working to
attract private capital into cash-strapped strategic emerging industries, which
have found it difficult to get bank loans as many start-ups are yet to turn
patents and intellectual property into profits.
As these industries have now become major growth
engines in many regions, local governments are considering ways of luring
private investment such as public-private partnerships and industrial
investment funds, according to the report.
Government-led industrial investment funds are
expected to play a guiding role in leading private capitals into the strategic
emerging industries, it said. China aims to increase output of strategic emerging
industries to account for 15 percent of GDP by 2020. (China Daily)