Economist Honored

Li Yining, one of the most prestigious Chinese economists, has won this year's China Award for Theoretical Innovation in Economics for his role in establishing the country's shareholding reform theory.

The 500,000-yuan ($71,000) award was jointly launched by four nongovernmental domestic academic institutions last year to recognize original, time-tested Chinese economics theories.

Li, 79, is dean emeritus of the Guanghua School of Management at Peking University. He raised the idea of reforming China's economy through a shareholding system at the very beginning of the reform and opening-up drive in the late 1970s, when the country adhered to a strict planned economy under which state-owned enterprises held a dominant position but performed poorly. Li's consistent advocacy has promoted ownership reform in China since the late 1990s, as well as the development of China's securities market.

Li is also a winner of the Sun Yefang Economics Award and the Golden Triangle Award, which are among the highest honors in China's economics world.

FAO Promotes Chinese Official

FILE

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced on November 25 it had appointed He Changchui as its deputy director general at its 138th Council Meeting in Rome, Italy. He is the first Chinese person to have been appointed to the position in the 63-year history of the FAO and also the highest-ranking Chinese official in the organization.

Before the appointment, He was FAO assistant director general and its regional representative for Asia and the Pacific.

He, who has a Ph.D. in urban and environment studies from Peking University, was born in 1949. A former official at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the National Commission of Science and Technology of China, he also served on the UN's Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific after becoming an international civil servant in 1988.

Since the resumption of its legitimate seat at the FAO in 1973, China has played an increasingly active role in FAO-led activities. In September 2008, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao committed a $30-million donation to the FAO in the form of a trust fund to help other developing countries with their agricultural development programs.

Business Newsmaker

CFP

Veteran media man He Li has been named editor of the top Chinese business magazine Caijing, replacing founder Hu Shuli who quit in early November. The appointment took effect on December 1, a spokesperson for Caijing said.

He, 47, entered the media world in 1989, after spending five years teaching in the Northern Jiaotong University and the Capital Normal University. Between 1989 and 2000, he worked at China Business Times, China's first privately invested newspaper, where Hu was international editor from 1992 to 1998.

He was one of the founding editors of The Economic Observer in Beijing and served as editor in chief and publisher of the weekly since 2001. He took over Shanghai-based China Business Weekly as its editor in chief in September 2007 and resigned in November 2009.