Local governments protest Beijing's plan to deal with overcapacity

Local governments are voicing complaints over a central government plan to deal with industrial overcapacity in China, The Financial Times reported. Beijing is proposing an RMB100 billion (US$15 billion) fund to retrain workers who lose their jobs in the course of industry cuts, but the plan requires local governments to foot some of the bill. But revenue in many of the localities where layoffs are most likely will be hit hardest by cuts to coal, oil or steel production, and regions with a large contingent of inefficient state-owned enterprises are now demanding a greater share of the plan be covered by the central government.