Cambridge International as and a level Economics Ebook

Role of enterprise in the modern 
economy
As explained above, the market is performing an ever-
increasing role in all types of economy. Th
is has provided 
opportunities for the development of an enterprise 
culture whereby people who are prepared to take risks 
may achieve substantial business success. For example, 
Roman Abramovich (Russia), Ratan Tata (India) and Li 
Ka-shing (Hong Kong), among many others, have built up 
conglomerate businesses, although in Tata’s case, he took 
over an already established family business.
Although these examples show enterprise at its highest 
level of success, we should also consider how many 
thousands of businesspeople benefi t from enterprise 
policies and initiatives developed by governments around 
the world. Obvious opportunities exist in retailing, 
Source:
New York Times
, 12 November 2013; 
Daily Telegraph
, 16 November 2013.
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China’s radical moves towards a bigger role for the free market
Leaders of the Chinese Communist Party have held a 
four-day conference to push through a radical series 
of reforms that will pave the way towards a much 
greater role for the free market in the future aff airs 
of its economy. This will be achieved in various ways 
including:
■
a reduced dependence on polluting state-owned 
companies
■
less dependence on state-driven construction 
projects
■
removal of price controls
■
phasing out caps on interest rates
■
more convertibility of the yuan on the foreign market
■
a further relaxation of the one child policy and 
measures to help rural communities.
The package of measures released by the Third Plenum 
meeting of the Party foresees a bigger role for private 
companies and a shift towards a modern consumer 
society. The communiqué that followed the meeting 
stated that the package will ‘give markets a decisive role 
in resource allocation and give better play to the role of 
government.’
All in all, this has to be seen as a clear signal that China is 
now moving towards a more balanced mixed economy.