Construction business system in China: an institutional transformation perspective

During the transformational period from a planned economic system to a market-oriented one, China's construction business system is in an intermediate stage of development. The developing business system has played an increasingly important part in regulating the relations between various actors in the building sector, but the disordered situation in the construction market has fully revealed the shortcomings of the system. Using international experience and practice for reference, China is making efforts to promote the construction business system with Chinese characteristics. The institutional change involves reforms in legislation, property rights, price mechanism and the investment system. The crucial issue lies in deregulation, but this is difficult to realize for a government-led reform. Only if government's control and intervention are decreased enough can the construction market and related professional bodies play their proper roles so that the development platform of China's construction industry can be gradually perfected.