Source: Chuanguan News Reporter Fu Zhenqing Zhang Tingming Wang Guoping Photo/Clip Wei Wei Wu Tan
At the beginning of the new year of 2022, Sichuan's reform and innovation ushered in good news. On January 18, the final list of "China Reform 2021 Cases" was released. Among them, "Sichuan uses reform thinking and innovative methods to build the Tianfu Central Legal Affairs District" was recommended as "China's Reform 2021 Special Case", and it is also the only provincial-level special case in the country.
The Tianfu Central Legal District was officially launched on February 5, 2021, and is the first legal agglomeration area in China to be built from the provincial level. As a new concept, Sichuan's pioneering flag raising has triggered an innovative demonstration effect. After the establishment of the Tianfu Central Legal District, all parts of the country have come to study and exchange, and now according to incomplete statistics, including Fujian, Shanghai, Jilin and other places have started the construction of the central legal district.
After one year of operation and being rated as a special case of China's reform in 2021, what is the progress of the construction of the Tianfu Central Legal District? What are the highlights of reform and innovation practices? What are the opportunities and challenges? A few days ago, this reporter interviewed Song Guanghui, full-time deputy director of the Reform Office of the Provincial CPC Committee, responsible person of the relevant department in charge of promoting the implementation of the construction of the Tianfu Central Legal Affairs District, Wang Bangxi, a full-time member of the Political and Legal Committee of the Provincial CPC Committee, and Li Ang, deputy director of the Management Committee of the Tianfu New District in Sichuan and secretary of the Party Working Committee of the Tianfu Headquarters Business District.
01 In the year of construction, more than 100 expert institutions settled in, and the "five tribunals" tried nearly 30,000 cases
Reporter: In the one year since its listing, what progress has been made in the construction of the Tianfu Central Legal District?
Wang Bangxi, a full-time member of the Political and Legal Committee of the Provincial Party Committee.
Wang Bangxi: The first is the rapid accumulation of various legal resources. We have gathered a number of judicial institutions in a very short period of time. From the approval of the Chengdu Trial Site of the Fifth Circuit Court of the Supreme People's Court, to the planning and construction of the trial business premises of the Sichuan Provincial High Court, the Chengdu Intermediate Court, the Chengdu Railway Transport Court First Court, the Second Court, and the Tianfu New District Court, to the newly established Internet Court, bankruptcy court, financial court, intellectual property court and giant panda national park ecological court, and other five professional courts. These judicial organs are gathered in the Tianfu Central Legal Affairs District, forming a core legal resource structure of "one point, five courts, and five tribunals". At present, we actually have 6 professional courts, and the recently approved Chengdu International Commercial Court is also about to be listed. The five professional courts listed earlier have all begun to operate substantively, and nearly 30,000 cases of various types have been tried in one year.
Li Ang, deputy director of the administrative committee of Sichuan Tianfu New District and secretary of the Party Working Committee of Tianfu Headquarters Business District.
Li Ang: We position the industrial planning of tianfu central legal district into four structural layers, namely the platform drive layer, the core industry layer, the related function layer, and the derivative supporting layer, hoping to build a legal service industry ecosystem with professional characteristics and the convergence of multiple elements of "government, business, study, research and enterprise". In the initial stage of Tianfu Central Legal District, we first focused on the platform driver layer and the core industrial layer, promoted the accelerated agglomeration of resource elements, and did play a significant role by giving full play to the siphon effect brought about by the agglomeration of judicial administrative institutions and the good signal released by the industrial support policy. On the basis of the core legal resource structure of "one point, five courts, five tribunals", we have focused on the core industries and introduced a number of well-known law firms such as Commerce and Commerce, Taihetai and Dingli, as well as various legal and pan-legal market-oriented institutions such as judicial appraisal, notarization, intellectual property rights, legal new media, and legal technology enterprises. Up to now, with the original stock institutions, the total number of more than 100 settled in the Tianfu Central Legal District, and more than 30 new ones have settled in, continuing to accumulate potential energy for the development of the Tianfu Central Legal District.
02 Sichuan took the lead in raising the flag, taking shape, and playing an innovative demonstration effect in the country
Reporter: Can be recommended as the only provincial-level special case of reform in the country in 2021, what are the highlights of reform and innovation in the construction of tianfu central legal district?
Song Guanghui, full-time deputy director of the Reform Office of the Provincial Party Committee.
Song Guanghui: The provincial party committee clearly put forward that "it is necessary to benchmark the requirements of the party Central Committee, highlight the characteristics of innovation, and use reform ideas and methods to go out of the new way of building a modern legal agglomeration area." After a year of construction, it should be said that fruitful results have been achieved. First of all, it has basically built an important platform for learning and studying Xi Jinping's rule of law thought, which has effectively promoted Xi Jinping's rule of law thought to go deep and solid in Sichuan. The second is to basically build a professional legal service system of the whole chain, and an enterprise encounters any legal problems and can basically find a solution in the Tianfu Central Legal Affairs District. The third is to basically build a legal support system for participating in the national strategy, such as the construction of service platforms such as the "Belt and Road" foreign-related service zone and the "Belt and Road" commercial mediation center, which have played an important role in mediating major tax-related disputes.
Wang Bangxi: In promoting the construction of the Tianfu Central Legal Affairs District, we have taken the initiative and tried first, and promoted many innovative major rule of law practices. From the perspective of case handling, from the Supreme People's Court to the most grass-roots people's courts, a multi-level judicial supply resource and legal services of the whole chain such as lawyers, notarization, arbitration, and judicial appraisal are gathered together, and all kinds of market entities, enterprises and ordinary people can enjoy more convenient legal services here.
There are also many innovations in rule of law practice. For example, under the authorization of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, Sichuan pioneered a pilot project of centralized and unified jurisdiction over the handling of intellectual property-related cases by provincial, municipal and county procuratorates at multiple levels, and we have placed this pilot in the Tianfu Central Legal Affairs District. Another example is the Ecological Court of the Giant Panda National Park, which concentrates on the jurisdiction and handling of criminal, administrative and civil related cases within the scope of the Giant Panda National Park, to better serve the construction and development of the Giant Panda National Park and to ensure the implementation of the national ecological environmental protection strategy.
03 The three major mechanisms and collaborative thinking in the construction are worthy of reference
Reporter: Taking the lead in raising the flag in the country, what experience can the construction of the Tianfu Central Legal District provide for other places?
Song Guanghui: I think there are three mechanisms that are worth referencing.
The first is a pragmatic and efficient leadership promotion mechanism. The provincial party committee attaches great importance to it and incorporates the construction of the Tianfu Central Legal Affairs District into the overall situation of the province's reform and development and the overall planning and deployment of the province according to law. Peng Qinghua, secretary of the provincial party committee, personally planned and promoted, and held many special meetings to study and deploy. Our province has set up a leading group with the standing committee of the provincial party committee, the secretary of the political and legal committee, and the executive vice governor as responsible comrades, and regularly studied and promoted to ensure the implementation of various major reform tasks.
The second is the authorization and empowerment mechanism that is tried first. The construction of the Tianfu Central Legal Affairs District has been supported by the Central Political and Legal Commission, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Justice and other central ministries and commissions, and a number of support policies with rich gold content have been introduced, which has greatly enhanced the potential of the construction of the Tianfu Central Legal District.
The third is the policy support mechanism for system integration. On the basis of a series of authorizations from the central government, we have also introduced a series of preferential policies at the provincial and municipal levels, and integrated incentives such as financial coordination support, high-end talents into the Tianfu Talent Program, tax incentives, and leasing subsidies have created a good institutional environment for accelerating the gathering of the legal industry.
Li Ang: In the traditional business logic, there is generally a commercial aggregation first, which generates a demand for legal services, and then there is an aggregation of legal resources. The construction of the Tianfu Central Legal District and the business district are coordinated and complementary.
On the one hand, the CBD itself is dominated by the headquarters economy, and 60 or 70 headquarters projects have been introduced in the past four or five years. The development of the headquarters economy requires a large number of productive service industries such as law firms and accounting firms. The construction of the Tianfu Central Legal District has a good role in promoting the development of the Tianfu New Area, especially the development of the Central Business District.
On the other hand, through the construction of the Tianfu Central Legal Affairs District, we will lead the creation of a market-oriented, internationalized and rule-of-law high-quality business environment in Sichuan that is the best in Sichuan and the forefront of the country, and give full play to the traction and driving role of "the rule of law is the best business environment", which will attract more commercial institutions and business activities to gather and accelerate the development of the business district.
This is a very innovative concept, and it also provides a reference for the construction of the Tianfu Central Legal District in other places, especially the construction of new districts.
04 It is necessary to focus on more high-quality resources with investment promotion ideas and market-oriented means
Reporter: What challenges will the Tianfu Central Legal District face in the next step of construction? What are the next steps and plans?
Li Ang: A real problem we are facing at present is that we are in a new area under construction, and all aspects of infrastructure facilities are still being stepped up and improved. Of course, with the acceleration of the construction of the new area, these problems will be solved.
The bigger challenge is that we have formed a physical aggregation of legal resources, but the chemical reaction has yet to be formed. That is to say, how the Tianfu New Area should make good use of the Tianfu Central Legal Affairs District and use the rule of law thinking and rule of law methods to promote economic construction and social development will be a long road.
In the next step, our main task is to quickly form the idea of using investment attraction and use market-oriented means to attract more high-quality legal institutions. Chengdu itself has a relatively good foundation, for example, the number of law firms ranks fourth in the country. If one-third of Chengdu's legal resources can be gathered in the Tianfu Central Legal District in the future, coupled with various judicial administrative agencies, it will certainly be able to complement and achieve mutual achievements with our goal of building a world-oriented central business district and a new center of Chengdu's future city, forming a virtuous circle, creating a new core growth pole characterized by legal services, and driving the in-depth development of the modern productive service industry in the entire region.
Wang Bangxi: Reform and innovation are always difficult, and we have no ready-made experience to learn from the construction of the Tianfu Central Legal District. Through a year of construction, we have a certain influence and popularity throughout the country, especially this time it has been rated as a provincial special case of China's reform. In the past year, people have continuously come to study and inspect, and a number of Tianfu Central Legal Affairs Districts have started construction across the country to keep an eye on catching up. Therefore, whether from the needs of our own development or the external situation and environment, we must continue to reform and innovate, which is of course very difficult. Another difficulty is the lack of professional strength. We now have a good working mechanism structure, which is generally very good, but some major issues are studied, major projects are introduced, and important work is landed, and we need more professional forces to do it.
For further reform and innovation, including increasing the issue of intellectual support, we will increase our efforts to absorb more talents with practical work experience and theoretical research level to the special class. At the same time, for the promotion of some specific projects, a third party can be entrusted to borrow wisdom and leverage power to maximize the mobilization of all parties to promote the construction of the Tianfu Central Legal District.
Song Guanghui: As the daily office of the Provincial Party Committee Deep Reform Committee, the Reform Office of the Provincial Party Committee will continue to play a good role in overall planning and coordination under the strong leadership of the Provincial Party Committee, and incorporate the construction of the Tianfu Central Legal Affairs District into the original driving force reform work arrangement of the Provincial Party Committee Deep Reform Committee, and into the key points of the work of the Provincial Party Committee Deep Reform Committee and the key points of the reform implementation of the ledger. The second is to continue to strive for greater support from national ministries and commissions, and under the guidance and support of the Central Reform Office and other departments, strive to obtain more reform authorizations in terms of improving the centralized settlement mechanism of courts at all levels, improving the international high-end legal service market system, and innovating the mechanism for introducing high-end talents. The third is to continue to support the Tianfu Central Legal Affairs District to try first, based on the actual situation of the province, integrate and launch a number of reform pilots in the political and legal fields, accelerate the convergence of high-energy legal resources, and continue to maintain the first launch advantage and leading edge.
A little more news
What is "special" about the Tianfu Central Legal District?
Interview with Pan Zhihong, president of the China Economic System Reform Magazine and president of the Local Reform and Innovation Research Institute
As an important platform for practicing Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law and promoting the construction of the rule of law in Sichuan, why can the construction of the Tianfu Central Legal District be favored and recommended by the organizers? What is "special" about its reform thinking and innovative approach? A few days ago, this reporter interviewed Pan Zhihong, president of the Magazine of China's Economic System Reform and president of the Local Reform and Innovation Research Institute.
Reporter: Can you briefly introduce the basic situation of the case collection in 2021 for China's reform?
Pan Zhihong: The "2021 China Reform Annual Cases" solicitation activity has been prepared since July 2021, and the cases are mainly submitted by local reform departments, and the organizers form an expert review team to discuss and recommend. We have collected more than 1,500 cases from all over the country, covering the fields of economy, politics, culture, society, ecological civilization construction, and party building.
After several rounds of discussion and recommendation, on January 18, we released the final list. Among them, there are 3 "annual special cases", 1 at the three levels of provinces, cities and counties, 20 "annual cases" and 90 "typical cases". "Sichuan Province Uses Reform Thinking and Innovative Methods to Build Tianfu Central Legal Affairs District" was recommended as the annual provincial special case of reform. In addition, there are 5 cases in Sichuan that have entered the list of "annual cases" and "typical cases" respectively.
We invited leaders and well-known experts in the field of reform to participate in the case discussion and recommendation throughout the process. Peng Sen, former deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission and president of the China Economic System Reform Research Association, gave specific guidance; Zhao Ai, executive vice president and secretary general of the China Economic System Reform Research Association, participated in the case discussion and recommendation meeting; other experts who put forward opinions or participated in relevant discussions included Kong Jingyuan, chairman of the China Economic Reform Research Foundation; Wang Yukai, former vice president of the China Administrative System Reform Research Association and former vice president of the Central Party School (National School of Administration).
Reporter: Why is Sichuan Province's use of reform thinking and innovative methods to build the Tianfu Central Legal Affairs District recommended as a special case in 2021? As the only provincial special case, in what ways is "special"?
Pan Zhihong: The Tianfu Central Legal Affairs District is a concentrated exploration and innovation in building a socialist rule of law system with Chinese characteristics and building and improving the socialist market economic system. It reflects the characteristics of high standing, originality, systematicness and initiative.
We believe that the Tianfu Central Legal Affairs District, on the basis of overall thinking, systematically integrates to promote reform, led by the Sichuan Provincial Party Committee and directly planned and promoted by the main leaders of the Provincial Party Committee, based on the overall situation of the province and even the whole country, based on the actual needs of ensuring the development of modernization and high-quality development, and specifically presents the high-quality development of Sichuan Tianfu New Area and Chengdu City and the whole province, the construction of the twin-city economic circle in Chengdu and Chongqing, the deep integration of the rule of law, reform and development, the integration of legal policy resources, and the integration of modern legal service resources. Promote the reform pilots of the Department of Public Prosecutions and Law, mobilize the motivation at the provincial, municipal and district levels, enhance the sense of gain of the masses, and combine problem-oriented with goal-oriented, reflecting the distinctive characteristics of reform and innovation. It can be said that it is a deep-seated and high-level reform case. Such innovation at the provincial level is the first in the country. The experts who participated in the case discussion unanimously recognized the outstanding features of the reform of the Tianfu Central Legal District and gave high praise.
Reporter: From the perspective of the experts who participated in the discussion and recommendation, what opinions and suggestions do you have on the future construction of the Tianfu Central Legal District?
Pan Zhihong: The reform and exploration of the Tianfu Central Legal Affairs District is a new thing and an exploration practice of great significance for building and improving the socialist rule of law system and economic system with Chinese characteristics. As a reform exploration, it is recommended that the Tianfu Central Legal Affairs District strengthen the sorting out and summary of experience, carry out extensive publicity and promotion; in-depth study and analysis of the institutional and institutional obstacles to the establishment of the Central Legal Affairs District, actively strive for the support of all parties, mobilize the motivation of all aspects, further integrate the rule of law, reform and development, and create a "Sichuan model" for the construction of the Central Legal Affairs District.
Editor: Zhang Ji
Proofreader: Rui Chen
Review: Xu Fan