7.
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industrial concerns by increasing the proportion of managers and
technicians in their make-up has been going too slowly; the spur
will now be applied. Better planning procedures, to ensure more
effective State control of enterprises, are to be introduced.
The financial restructuring of industry, the most striking
element of which so far has been the introduction of a system
of taxation to replace the handing up of all profits, is to be
further developed. There is to be a "readjustment" of industrial
wages, starting now, with yet more emphasis on "to each according
to his work". The personnel system is to be reformed so that the
labour force can be handled more flexibly. Indiscriminate handing
out of bonuses is to be curbed, as are arbitrary price increases.
Enterprises which run at a loss due to poor operation have been
given time limits to become profitable. Otherwise they will be
ordered to shut down, amalgamate or produce other goods.
13. This presentation of the problems in industry was unusually
frank. It is quite clear that the greater freedom given to
provinces and enterprises over the past two years had led to a
rapid expansion in non-key capital construction, that this had
led to loss of control over the heavy industrial sector by the
central government, and that the latter are now extremely alarmed
by it.
The degree to which the out-turn in 1982 differed from
the plan is indicative of the extent of the problem. It is
however a rather different problem from the old situation, where
too much of the available resources was deliberately devoted to
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/the