Quotable

"Income distribution is a prominent issue in economic reform. Rich people prefer to consume overseas while the majority of middle and low-income people can only afford low-end consumption. This leads to an imbalanced economic structure. The government should strive to narrow the income gap and increase the ratio of wage earners' income to GDP."

Song Xiaowu, vice-president of the China Society of Economic Reform, talking at an economics seminar in Beijing on Oct 23 about the measures being contemplated by the government to address the income gap issue.

"Property bubbles have emerged in China. There will be severe consequences if the construction boom does not stop."

Zong Qinghou, chairman of beverage giant Wahaha Group, saying that more steps are needed to reduce the gap between demand and supply in China's housing sector.

"The urbanization rate is pretty high in some countries. The proportion of farmers in the total population in Japan is only about 3 percent, and that in South Korea is more than 6 percent. What we need to pay attention to is how many people will keep working on cropland in China."

Li Qiang, dean of the School of Social Sciences at Tsinghua University, talking about the challenges posed by urbanization. Statistics released by the China Data Center at Tsinghua University showed that most of the migrant workers are not keen on returning to farming.

(China Daily European Weekly 11/01/2013 page3)