World Bank head hails China's reform plan

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim speaks during an interview with Reuters in Santiago on July 5, 2013, file photo. [Photo/Agencies]

WASHINGTON - World Bank President Jim Yong Kim lauded on Tuesday that the message from the key meeting of the Communist Party of China (CPC) is "extremely positive" and very encouraging.

"The language coming out of the party congress is extremely positive," Kim told a briefing at the World Bank headquarters.

"They're saying that they're going to reply much more heavily on the private sector and that the distribution of resources is going to be determined much more by market forces," Kim said, referring to the communique issued after the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, which took place in Beijing on November 9-12.

Kim noted that it is very encouraging that despite lower growth figures, China is continuing down the path of reform, making the transition from being mostly investment and export-oriented to consumption and service-oriented.

China's commitment to reforms of the business environment and the role of the private sector seems very firm, Kim added.

"We expect them to perhaps grow at a slower rate, but the quality of growth we think will be better," he said.

At the end of the four-day plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, a new reform blueprint was unveiled on Tuesday to push forward the development of the world's second largest economy.

A more decisive role of the market in allocating resources and setting up a central leading team for "comprehensively deepening reform" were highlighted on the reform agenda.