Chinese Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan said in Beijing on Friday that a quicker process should be adopted to set up a price forming mechanism reflecting market supply and demand of energy and resources.

Special efforts should go to the five areas of water, electricity, oil and natural gas, coal and land resources, Zeng said at Friday's national conference on the issue.

Government interference should be reduced and the market should play a bigger role in the price forming mechanism, said Zeng.

Meanwhile, the government should tighten and improve macro control over price monopoly or pricing for products of public welfare to guide the price formation by storing certain products and launching funds for price adjustment, he said.

A unified open market system with sound competition and good order should be set up to promote the flow of resource products, said the vice premier.

Different industries and regions should also be taken into consideration and measures of social security, financial subsidy and price preference should be adopted to improve the price mechanism, said Zeng.

In the past 27 years, China has developed from a planned economy to a market economy and the price mechanism also turned from being highly-concentrated to market-oriented under the government's macro control.

(Xinhua News Agency October 29, 2005)