CHINA is about to lift the burden of production quotas from the shoulders of state-owned car-makers.
A Chinese official said car industry development guidelines to be announced soon under China's ninth five-year plan would abolish the output quota system.
The system is typical under a planned economy, in which each state manufacturing plant must meet an assigned production quota.
The new guidelines would give only a projected market demand to 2000.
Vehicle makers would be able to decide their production in accordance with capabilities, the official said.
He said manufacturers were being given more autonomy to design their strategic plans for market competition.
The guidelines expect China's annual demand for road vehicles, apart from motorcycles, to be between 2.5 million and three million by 2000 when it would have between 18 million and 21 million vehicles on its roads.
