China’s State Council has unveiled this year’s priorities for economic reforms. The reforms – to streamline administration and deregulate power to lower levels, promote the yuan’s convertibility under the capital account, and launch a trial scheme to connect the Shenzhen and Hong Kong stock exchanges – aim to add new impetus to the country’s development. China’s economic growth in the first quarter of this year slowed to 7%, the lowest level since the financial crisis, which prompted policy-makers to accelerate an economic overhaul. In the statement, the government vowed to cut red tape, loosen controls on market access and investment, and improve pricing mechanisms for public services including medicine and natural gas. The government said it will promote public-private partnerships (PPP) to attract private capital into infrastructure construction and public enterprises. The government will push reform of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in key industries including electricity by reorganizing and consolidating them to improve efficiency, and it will support private firms to make the market less monopolistic. A mechanism will be set up for local authorities to raise funds and assess their debt risks. Taxation reform, expanding value-added tax (VAT) to the construction, property and finance sectors and adjusting resource tax, personal income tax and environmental protection tax will be continued. In the financial sector, China will speed up the development of private banks and small financial institutions, and issue a guideline to ensure healthy development of internet finance. The country will also further open up its financial sector. The government will further liberalize interest rates, make the yuan more flexible against other currencies and promote the use of the yuan in cross-border settlement, the Shanghai Daily reports.