From "shadow banking" to lavish public spending, the message of the new leadership headed by Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang in its first year has been clear: the days of excessive spending and damaging liquidity are over.

By the time the Third Plenum of the 18th Communist Party of China Central Committee was held in November, the leadership had already shifted its focus to tripartite reforms, which sought to foster the role of efficient markets, competitive companies and a smaller but more effective public sector.

The core reform sectors include finance, taxation, State assets, social welfare, land, foreign investment, innovation and governance. The reform blueprint seeks to relax control over market access, establish a basic social security package and allow the sale of collectively owned rural land. And the old household registration system (hukou), which continues to discourage migration, will be phased out gradually in the course of the massive urbanization drive.