Boost business investment, Beijing urged

The annual NPC session is considered the highest organ of state power in China

(CNN) -- A top Chinese legislator has urged Beijing to encourage businesses to invest instead of relying on state bonds to stimulate spending.

Vice-Chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Tian Jiyun said on the sidelines of China's annual legislative meeting that issuing multi-million yuan state bonds could only be a "stop-gap measure," and that the size of such issues should be restricted.

Tian, also a Politburo member, said boosting the people's desire to invest and do business was a more effective way of stimulating the economy.

"It is better to formulate adequate policies and to create a favorable environment to encourage investment from the non-state sector," Tian said in a session with Guangdong NPC members.

Relying on initiatives stemming from the private sector was a "sustained, long-term and fundamental way" to ensure economic growth, he added.

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Tian, a former vice-premier noted for his pro-market views, indicated concrete policies to encourage non-state investments might be unveiled at the end of the year.

Premier Zhu Rongji and Finance Minister Xian Huaicheng announced this week that Beijing would issue 150 billion yuan worth of bonds this year to stimulate domestic spending.

This was on top of the more than 500 billion yuan that the Zhu administration had already raised through long-term bonds over the past four years.

Neither Zhu nor Xian, however, have indicated that relying on state borrowing to finance growth was just a temporary measure.

'Protect private property'

Meanwhile, a number of legislators and members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), a top advisory council, are set to table a motion at the NPC and the CPPCC on the importance of protecting private property.

The Federation of Industry and Commerce, one of China's eight "democratic parties," has for the past year lobbied for revising the constitution to ensure the inviolability of private property.

NPC sources said the proportion of legislators who are businessmen would likely be raised substantially when a new five-year session of the congress opened in March next year.

The NPC session this year runs until the March 15.