Beijing needs to rethink its restructuring policies and let market forces play a greater role in the economy, experts said ahead of today's release of the mainland's third-quarter growth figure. The central government's policies - which prioritised stability - had neither stabilised the economy nor achieved great progress in restructuring it, the analysts said. Opinions within the government are mixed on whether to keep the growth target at 7 per cent for the next five years as calls have been growing for stronger reform measures and less focus on ensuring growth. READ MORE: Market reform in China must continue All these factors may bring about a shift in stance in China's economic policy in its upcoming 13th five-year plan and the Annual Central Economic Work Conference. The progress of reforms, introduced two years ago, had been disappointing and the recent stock market routs were an indication of defects in the financial regulatory system, said Li Jiange, vice-chairman of Central Huijin Investment, a subsidiary of sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corporation. Small- and medium-sized businesses are still struggling financially and many state-owned enterprises remain highly inefficient and are continuing to turn in losses. Property tax reforms in Chongqing and Shanghai have not moved beyond trial stages and more than half of the country's provinces have yet to introduce schemes to overhaul their household registration systems. The central bank, the People's Bank of China, even regressed, resorting again to intervention when it devalued the yuan in August. It still allows only small fluctuations of the yuan against the US dollar. A government economist said on condition of anonymity that the PBOC's move was "because leaders and the bank cannot tolerate large market volatility". But Li said the economy would see little progress as long as the reforms continued to be so limited in scale. "Governments at the central and local levels as well as academia are dissatisfied with the progress of the Shanghai Free-Trade Zone," Li said at a forum on Friday. The zone was launched in September 2013 with "mechanism innovation" as a key goal. Former China International Capital Corporation chairman Zhu Yunlai believed that the government should give up trying to prevent an economic slowdown and instead invest its efforts in finding new growth areas, such as expanding overseas markets via the "One Belt, One Road" initiative. Zhu, the son of former premier Zhu Rongji , said he saw huge economic potential in the long run although the present situation was worse than previously expected. "Whether this potential can come into play completely depends on the current reforms," he said. "The challenge now is to decide which things are correct and how to do them." The challenge now is to decide which things are correct and how to do them Former China International Capital Corporation chairman Zhu Yunlai Criticising the government's measures to boost the economy through investment, Zhu said many such projects did not consider market demand and were thus "inefficient". The mainland is expecting a gross domestic product growth rate of less than 7 per cent for the third quarter. The figure will be released today. Traditional industries and production patterns could no longer sustain economic expansion, analysts said. PBOC monetary policy committee member Huang Yiping said the labour-intensive manufacturing sector was losing competitiveness because of rising labour costs in the southeast, while the resource and heavy-industry sectors in the northern provinces were reeling from overcapacity. To revive the slowing economy, Beijing has urged innovation and entrepreneurship, unveiling plans to upgrade manufacturing and to explore potential in the internet economy. But some analysts have voiced concern that policies the government is pushing - such as increasing the production of low-end robots - may instead result in a new round of overcapacity, while others have pointed to a lack of industrialisation in new areas such as 3D printing. Economists have hence called for greater trust in market forces. The government should avoid distorting markets and work on improving technical competence instead, Huang said.