Boon to people

The central government's decision to transfer State-owned shares to the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) will enable Chinese consumers to worry less about their pension funds and spend more to hasten the change of China's growth model.

A regulation issued last weekend requires that State-owned companies which sold shares after the structural reform in 2005, or plan to do so in future, must transfer State-owned equities equivalent to 10 percent of their initial public offerings (IPOs) to the NSSF.

Though the government stressed that the move was part of an effort to finance the social security system and the retirement of the aging population, the press has overwhelmingly interpreted it as a evidence that the authorities are trying to boost investors' confidence in the face of the lifting of a nine-month IPO suspension.