Time to shore up growth

High hopes are pinned on the three-day Central Economic Work Conference that began yesterday in Beijing.

In view of the severity of the economic situation at home and abroad, it is only reasonable to expect that the Chinese authorities will come up with more stimulus measures to prevent a sharp slowdown of the national economy.

However, while anticipating massive government steps to bolster employment and domestic demand, Chinese enterprises should not wait for the current crisis to burn itself out. They should strengthen confidence to ride it out successfully with drastic reforms that are crucial to their long-term competitiveness.