Associated Press
August 14, 2006

Report: Move to ease energy controls aimed at increasing efficiency.

China is considering easing controls on the price of oil, power and other resources, letting market forces push them up in an effort to cut widespread waste, a state newspaper said Monday. The government is "determined to make prices more dependent on market forces," the China Daily said, citing Bi Jingquan, a deputy minister of the Cabinet’s National Development and Reform Commission, the country’s top planning agency. Bi’s comments, made in a speech last week, are "the first time the government has firmly expressed its determination for price reform," the newspaper said. It didn’t give a timetable for price changes or say how much costs might rise. Economic planners have long complained that China’s low government-set prices for energy and raw materials encourages waste by factories, mines and other businesses.