"To get rich is glorious" and "Let some people get rich first", China's late leader Deng Xiaoping said 35 years ago when the country began to abandon its planned economy and adopt market-oriented reform and opening up.

Deng, the architect of the country's reform agenda, said the ultimate goal, after a generation of reform, was "shared affluence" throughout the country.

Chi Fulin, a top Chinese political adviser, says it is vital that the shared affluence Deng talked of continues to be a focus at every stage of the country's reform.

"China's leadership now really needs to come up with an action plan for the people to share the country's wealth and affluence," says Chi, president of the China Institute for Reform and Development.

His remarks come as the Third Plenary Session of the Chinese Communist Party's 18th Central Committee approaches next month.

With a widening gap in China between rich and poor, Chi says: "What people want is a start to a reform agenda for the coming decade."

Chi, one of the country's most well-known advocates of reform, says that putting the country on a more market-oriented path, one that is intertwined with global economics, should be at the top of the plenum's to-do list, which is now being formulated.

"That's mainly because the strategies that have been adopted are likely to transform China from an upper middle-income country into a high-income one over the coming decade."

China's gross national income was about $5,800 per person last year, the World Bank says. That figure is likely to double in the coming decade even if China maintains only medium-paced economic growth, Chi says.

Chi has served two five-year terms as a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the country's highest political advisory body.

Much to his delight, China's leaders have lived up to people's expectations on reform and development, he says, and a consensus has been reached at the highest echelons that reform must continue.

Chi says he bases this conclusion on the new visions, strategies and actions that President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang have talked of and demonstrated since they took power early this year.

Formulating a program of reform is riddled with difficulties, particularly in today's economic environment, Chi says.

In his proposals on dealing with such problems, he has listed 30 actions or reform measures for the coming five years. As the Central Committee of the Party has entrusted a special taskforce to draft the country's reform agenda, Chi says his proposals have been used as background reports for the writing team.

Reform should focus on sorting out what roles the government and the market should play, coordinating the interests of social groups and fighting corruption, he says.

Very soon China will further reform its pricing mechanism on resources and let the market have more say; market-oriented reforms on interest rates and the exchange rate will be carried out, and in most of the areas in which a monopoly exists, private and foreign investors will be given the same access as State-owned enterprises.

"I think these reforms will be implemented soon after the Third Plenary Session," Chi says.

Steps will also be taken to tackle corruption head on and to reduce government involvement in economic activities and ensure transparent management of governmental organizations, he says.

Government officials should be required to publicly divulge their wealth, he says.

"I think that will gradually happen."

fujing@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily USA10/28/2013 page14)