Lian Ping is Chief Economist and Dean of Research Institute of Zhixin Investment
The report of the 20th CPC National Congress has set higher development requirements for the reform of the socialist market economy system. In the context of the new era, in order to accelerate the construction of a new development pattern and focus on promoting high-quality development, the report of the 20th National Congress clearly proposed to build a high-level socialist market economy system, which is a higher requirement for continuing to deepen the reform of the market economy system after the 18th National Congress proposed to comprehensively deepen the reform of the economic system and the 19th National Congress to accelerate the improvement of the socialist market economy system. To establish a high-level socialist market economic system, on the one hand, it is necessary to build a high-level effective market, optimize government services and financial services, solve the problems of enterprise development and residents' income, improve the market-oriented, legalized and international business environment, and stimulate the vitality of market entities; On the other hand, it is necessary to build a high-level promising government, further improve the macro policy system and its cross-cycle adjustment mechanism, strive to maintain a fair competition market environment, adhere to regulatory norms and promote development, pay equal attention to both regulatory norms and development, make macro governance and government supervision more accurate and in place, continue to promote scientific and technological innovation, effectively improve people's livelihood and well-being, and strive to maintain the smooth operation of the overall economic market.
The high-level socialist market economic system has been promoted simultaneously from multiple fields, comprehensively improving the level of all aspects of the economic system, and providing a strong guarantee for promoting high-quality development and building a new development pattern. In the future, the mainland will carry out in-depth reforms in 11 key aspects of five major sectors, including the market economy system, the macroeconomic governance system, the enterprise development environment, the scientific and technological innovation system, and the people's livelihood and welfare system. In view of the three new fields and six key points, we will increase the intensity of high-level opening up to the outside world and continue to promote the construction of a modern socialist country.
1. Build a high-level market economic system
Deepening reform in this regard involves improving the basic socialist economic system and the basic system of the market economy, building a unified national market, and building a high-standard market system. Upholding and improving the basic socialist economic system is an important part of the thought on socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era. The report of the 20 th CPC National Congress stressed the need to uphold and improve the basic socialist economic system, unswervingly consolidate and develop the public-owned economy, unswervingly encourage, support, and guide the development of the non-public economy, give full play to the decisive role of the market in the allocation of resources, and give better play to the role of the government. The report of the 20th National Congress inherits the reform idea of the report of the 19th National Congress of "improving the property rights system and the marketization of factors to allocate the key points of economic system reform", emphasizing the improvement of the property rights protection system and deepening the reform of the factor market. On this basis, it is further proposed to improve market access, fair competition, social credit and other basic systems of the market economy, and optimize the business environment. In April this year, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council pointed out in the "Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of a Unified National Market" that it is necessary to complete a unified social credit system in many aspects, such as compiling a national basic catalog of Public Credit Information, establishing mechanisms for sharing and integrating Public Credit Information and financial information, completing new credit-based regulatory mechanisms, completing mechanisms for incentives for trustworthiness and punishment for untrustworthiness, improving mechanisms for credit restoration, and accelerating the advancement of social credit legislation; In the future, the establishment and improvement of the social credit system will become an important part of government work.
The report of the 20th National Congress pointed out that it is necessary to deepen the market-oriented reform of key factors. At present, creating a unified factor and resource market is on the agenda. At the end of 2021, the pilot of comprehensive reform of market-oriented allocation of factors was officially launched, involving the management system, trading rules, protection mechanism and distribution mechanism of land, labor and talent, capital, technology, data, resources and other factors, and it is expected to basically complete the pilot task by 2025. Accelerating the market-oriented reform of factors is an important part of the mainland's construction of a unified national market, and it is also one of the key points for building a high-level market economic system and promoting high-quality development, and it is expected to achieve breakthroughs during the 14th Five-Year Plan period. The report of the 20th National Congress stressed the need to deepen the reform of simplifying administration and delegating powers, combining decentralization and management, and optimizing services, which is an important part of properly handling the relationship between the government and the market in the process of building a high-level market economy system; In the future, we will continue to accelerate the transformation of government functions, clarify the boundaries of government responsibilities, realize the transformation from traditional control, management to governance in terms of concepts, systems and methods, shift the focus of government work to providing high-quality public services, and at the same time innovate regulatory methods to maintain a fair competitive market environment.
2. Improve the macroeconomic governance system
The report of the 20th National Congress called for improving the macroeconomic governance system and strengthening the coordination and cooperation between fiscal and monetary policies. The report of the 18th National Congress proposed to strengthen the institutionalization of macro-control objectives and policy means, the report of the 19th National Congress further proposed to innovate and improve macro-control, and the report of the 20th National Congress proposed to improve the macroeconomic governance system, reflecting the reform line of the mainland's macro-control system gradually expanding from point to point, in the same line, and constantly improving. At present, the mainland's economic development has shifted from a stage of high-speed growth to a stage of high-quality development, and the idea of macroeconomic governance should not only pay attention to economic growth and economic structure, but also pay attention to systemic financial risks, people's livelihood security, environmental governance, etc., and think more systematically and comprehensively. In the future, the mainland will accelerate the construction of a new development pattern, the macroeconomic governance system will promote high-quality development as the theme, deeply implement the new development concept, highlight the strategic orientation of the national medium- and long-term development plan, organically combine the implementation of the strategy of expanding domestic demand with the deepening of supply-side structural reform, strengthen the coordination and cooperation of fiscal and monetary policies, do a good job in cross-cyclical policy design and counter-cyclical adjustment, pay attention to taking into account internal and external balance, and strengthen bottom-line thinking and risk awareness. At the same time, we should also pay attention to the basic supporting role of macroeconomic governance database and evaluation system.
Deepening the reform of the fiscal and taxation system is an important part of improving the macroeconomic governance system. The report of the 20th National Congress proposed to improve the modern budget system, optimize the tax structure, and improve the fiscal transfer payment system. Improving the modern budget system is an important part of China's modernization on the basis of "establishing a comprehensive, standardized, transparent, scientific, and strongly constrained budget system" proposed by the 19th National Congress, with the aim of establishing a scientific budget and realizing the integration of budget management by clarifying the scope of government budget revenue and expenditure, and attaching importance to revenue forecasting and expenditure standards. Realize the systematization of budget supervision through the implementation of standardization and strengthen supervision, and establish an all-round, full-process and full-coverage budget performance management system; At the same time, it pays attention to performance management and strengthens openness and transparency. Optimizing the tax system structure is an important starting point for achieving high-quality economic development and promoting common prosperity. The 18th National Congress proposed to build a local tax system and form a tax system conducive to structural optimization and social fairness, while the 19th National Congress called for deepening the reform of the tax system and improving the local tax system. In contrast, the 20th Party Congress report emphasizes the optimization of the tax system, and will focus on improving the direct tax system in the future and appropriately increasing the proportion of direct tax (36% in 2021); Improve the personal income tax system and optimize the tax rate structure; Further optimize the value-added tax system and support the development of the manufacturing industry and its industrial chain and supply chain; Adjust the scope and tax rate of consumption tax to stimulate consumer demand and guide consumption behavior; Improve various preferential policies such as tax exemptions and refunds; Improve the local tax system and gradually expand the power of local tax administration. Compared with the previous one, the report of the 20th Party Congress proposed for the first time to improve the transfer payment system. At present, the mainland has basically formed a transfer payment system with general transfer payments as the main body and the combination of common financial authority transfer payments and special transfer payments; As the scale of transfer payments from the central government to local governments increases year by year, reaching 9.8 trillion yuan in 2022, transfer payments play an important role in balancing government financial resources, promoting the equalization of basic public services, and promoting coordinated regional development, but at the same time, it still needs to be continuously optimized through reform and innovation in terms of equal financial power and authority, allocation and use of funds, performance management and supervision.
Deepening the reform of the financial system is a constant theme in the financial sector. The last three party congresses have emphasized the need to deepen the reform of the financial system, but the difference is that the report of the 20th National Congress officially proposed to build a modern central banking system, strengthen and improve modern financial supervision, and strengthen the financial stability guarantee system. The construction of a modern central banking system first proposed by the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee was once again mentioned in the report of the 20th National Congress as an important part of building a high-level market economic system. Building a modern central banking system is an inherent need for high-quality development and a strategic support for starting a new journey of building a modern socialist country in an all-round way. The modern central banking system is a major systemic project, and its primary task is to improve the monetary policy framework, including optimizing the policy target system, enriching the monetary policy toolbox, and smoothing the policy transmission mechanism. The second is to establish a convenient and efficient financial infrastructure service system, build a systematic financial risk prevention and control system and improve the governance mechanism of international financial coordination and cooperation. Build a modern central banking system, including a money supply regulation and control mechanism, flexibly and accurately use aggregate, structure and price tools to regulate market liquidity, regulate the credit delivery of financial institutions, and optimize the credit structure; Improve the modern financial institution system with high adaptability, competitiveness and inclusiveness, and improve the ability to serve the high-quality development of the real economy.
The report of the 20th National Congress proposed to strengthen and improve modern financial supervision, strengthen the financial stability guarantee system, bring all kinds of financial activities into supervision in accordance with the law, and keep the bottom line of no systemic risk. To continuously improve modern financial supervision, it is necessary to establish an efficient regulatory decision-making coordination and communication mechanism, improve the three pillars of macro-prudence, micro-prudence and behavioral supervision, and build authoritative and efficient risk disposal institutional arrangements. At present, the mainland has established a deposit insurance fund, an insurance protection fund and a trust industry protection fund to prevent, resolve and deal with financial risks in the banking, insurance and trust industries. The 2022 Government Work Report proposed the establishment of a financial stability guarantee fund, and is currently accelerating the fundraising work; In April, the draft Financial Stability Law solicited opinions from the public, and in the future, the financial rule of law system will be further improved, the responsibilities of all parties will be compacted, and a market-oriented risk disposal mechanism will be established according to the rule of law. The above-mentioned funds and their institutional arrangements will become an important part of the financial stability guarantee system, and the next stage may be to further divide the scope of protection for financial risk events, the division of rights and responsibilities, and the disposal mechanism of various funds, so as to provide multi-level and systematic risk solutions for the healthy development of financial markets and financial institutions.
The report of the 20th National Congress proposed to improve the function of the capital market and increase the proportion of direct financing. At present, the mainland has the world's largest banking market, and the way of financial support for the real economy is still mainly indirect financing; However, in recent years, the scale of direct financing on the mainland has expanded rapidly, the structure has been continuously optimized, and the construction of a multi-level capital market system has achieved remarkable results. To improve the function of the capital market, we must first give full play to the factor resource allocation function of the capital market and guide the efficient allocation of funds in a more innovative direction; The second is to better play its wealth management function, stimulate market vitality, and meet the wealth management needs of the broad masses of people; The third is to give full play to the risk prevention and resolution hub function of the capital market, better play the role of the market's internal stability mechanism, and improve the efficiency of macro-prudential supervision and risk disposal. The report emphasizes that the requirements of regulating and guiding the healthy development of capital in accordance with the law will also effectively promote social capital to increase support for the real economy, especially in key areas such as advanced manufacturing, scientific and technological innovation, and new energy, through reform.
3. Optimize and enhance the development environment of enterprises
Paying attention to the development of various types of micro-subjects, emphasizing the deepening of the reform of state-owned and state-owned enterprises, optimizing the development environment of private enterprises, and supporting the development of small, medium, and micro enterprises are the inherent requirements of high-quality development. The report of the 20 th CPC National Congress once again made it clear that continuously deepening the reform of state-owned enterprises and unswervingly consolidating and developing the public-owned economy is an important part of the mainland's basic socialist economic system and is a task that needs to be adhered to for a long time. Accelerate the optimization of the layout and structural adjustment of the state-owned economy, as early as the 18th National Congress to improve the management system of various types of state-owned assets, that is, to promote more investment of state-owned capital in important industries and key areas related to national security and the lifeline of the national economy; The 19th CPC National Congress also added requirements for speeding up the strategic reorganization of the state-owned economy. At present, the key issue in deepening the reform of state-owned enterprises is to improve the property rights system, and the first task of improving the modern enterprise system with Chinese characteristics proposed in the report of the 20th National Congress is also to build a stable and flexible shareholding structure; In the future, it is necessary to further deepen the reform of state-owned enterprises from the aspects of promoting the construction of the board of directors with high quality, stimulating the motivation and vitality of managers, and handling the relationship between the party's leadership and market-oriented selection and employment of managers.
The report of the 20th National Congress pointed out that it is necessary to protect the property rights of private enterprises and the rights and interests of entrepreneurs in accordance with the law, and promote the development and growth of the private economy. Different from the content of the previous two party congresses, the 18th National Congress proposed equal use of production factors in accordance with the law, equal competition, and equal legal protection; The 19th National Congress fully implemented the management of the negative list for market access, and eliminated various regulations and practices that hindered the unified market and fair competition, mostly in the field of market access and fair competition; The report of the 20th National Congress focuses on protecting the property rights and interests of private enterprises and entrepreneurs, and focusing on optimizing the business environment. The private economy is an important part of the national economy and the main force for achieving full employment. Building a high-level market economy system also requires the private economy to maintain high-quality development, and it is necessary to accelerate the reform of institutional mechanisms in market access, fair competition, property rights protection, legal protection, social credit, direct financing and indirect financing, change market concepts, treat private enterprises equally, and effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of private entrepreneurs.
The report of the 20th National Congress focuses on supporting the development of small and medium-sized micro enterprises, and the 19th National Congress does not have a relevant description, and the 18th National Congress proposed to support the development of small and micro enterprises, especially technology-based small and micro enterprises, in promoting the strategic adjustment of the economic structure. Since the epidemic, small and medium-sized micro enterprises have faced greater operational pressure, in order to protect market entities, income and employment, various targeted enterprise rescue policies have been frequently introduced, such as combined tax and fee reduction policies, rent reductions, deferred payment of social insurance premiums, increasing the amount of government financing guarantee business, increasing the amount of small reloans, reducing the interest rate of small reloans, and creating two monetary policy tools that directly reach the real economy, etc., and small and medium-sized micro enterprises have received greater policy support. There is still great uncertainty in the future epidemic, domestic demand recovery is relatively slow, and small and medium-sized micro enterprises have indispensable contributions in employment, innovation, services and other aspects, which requires the market economy system to deepen reform in the above aspects, continue to support the development of small and medium-sized micro enterprises, and strive to solve their business development problems.
In accordance with the spirit of the 20th National Congress, we will continue to deepen the simplification of administration and decentralization, the combination of decentralization and management, optimize service reform, change the concept of operation and management, improve the efficiency of government administration and service quality, enhance social fairness and justice, innovate supervision methods, and create a good business environment for small and medium-sized enterprises; We will continue to accelerate the implementation of the rescue policy for small and medium-sized enterprises, flexibly use the combined tax and fee policy, reduce the tax burden of enterprises, and ensure that the VAT retention and refund of small and micro enterprises and individual industrial and commercial households are in place; Encourage financial institutions to increase support for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and individual industrial and commercial households, reduce loan interest rates, increase credit lines, expand credit disbursement, and solve problems such as low collateral assets and financing difficulties with the help of government financing guarantee funds; Local finance will continue to accelerate the implementation of special relief funds for small, medium, and micro enterprises and individual industrial and commercial households, and strive to solve their business development problems through rent subsidies, guarantee fees, loan interest discounts, and price subsidies for water, electricity, and gas.
4. Promote the reform of the scientific and technological innovation system
Science and technology is the primary productive force, talent is the primary resource, and innovation is the primary driving force. The discussions on education, science and technology and talent in the reports of the 18th and 19th National Congresses are scattered in various chapters. The report of the 20th National Congress put forward the three together and into separate chapters, put forward "in-depth implementation of the strategy of rejuvenating the country through science and education, strengthen the support of talents for modernization", and placed it after the chapter of "accelerating the construction of a new development pattern and focusing on promoting high-quality development", reflecting the core position of the three-in-one development strategy of education, science and technology and talents in high-quality development, and endowing it with a basic and strategic supporting role for the comprehensive construction of a socialist modern country.
Self-reliance and self-improvement in science and technology is an inevitable requirement for promoting high-quality development and building a new development pattern. At present, the international environment is complex, the world's unprecedented major changes in a century are becoming more and more excited, the global industrial chain and supply chain are facing reshaping, and the instability and uncertainty are significantly enhanced. All countries in the world have deeply realized the importance of scientific and technological self-reliance and self-improvement to national security and development, and scientific and technological innovation has become the main battlefield of international strategic games. Only by strengthening the strategic independence of science and technology and its ability to make independent innovations can the mainland win the initiative in development amid fierce international competition.
Since the 18th National Congress, the mainland has accelerated the promotion of scientific and technological self-reliance and self-reliance, and the R&D expenditure of the whole society has increased from 1 trillion yuan to 2.8 trillion yuan, ranking second in the world; the total number of R&D personnel ranks first in the world; and the comprehensive ranking of national innovation ability has risen to 12th in the world. Basic research and original innovation have been continuously strengthened, more than 500 state key laboratories have been laid out, and breakthroughs have been made in some key core technologies, which is accelerating to the forefront of innovative countries.
The reform of the scientific and technological innovation system is the key focus to accelerate the realization of high-level scientific and technological self-reliance and self-reliance. In the future, we should continue to improve the scientific and technological innovation system, improve the new national system, and accelerate the implementation of the innovation-driven development strategy. The first is to build an institutional mechanism to strengthen basic research and enhance original innovation capabilities. Focusing on major strategic needs and scientific and technological breakthroughs, build an efficient organizational mobilization mechanism, build strategic scientific and technological forces, and win the battle of key core technologies. The second is to increase diversified investment in science and technology, deepen the reform of the mechanism for the allocation and use of financial science and technology funds, and improve the efficiency of science and technology investment. The third is to improve the promotion mechanism to strengthen the main position of enterprise innovation, promote enterprises to become the main body of R&D investment, scientific research organization and achievement transformation and application, and strengthen the "government, industry, education, research and application" cooperation with enterprises as the main body. The fourth is to improve the institutional mechanism of international scientific and technological exchanges and cooperation, and create an open innovation ecology with global competitiveness.
V. Improve and optimize the system of people's livelihood and well-being
The report of the 20th National Congress pointed out that the people-centered development ideology is to safeguard the fundamental interests of the people, improve people's livelihood and well-being, and constantly realize that development is for the people, development relies on the people, and the fruits of development are shared by the people, so that the achievements of modernization construction will be more equitable and benefit all the people. In the coming period, the mainland will vigorously promote the reform of the people's livelihood and welfare system in four aspects: income distribution, employment promotion, social security, and housing.
1. Improve the income distribution system
The income distribution system is the basic system for promoting common prosperity. Compared with the reports of the 18th and 19th National Congresses, the report of the 20th National Congress emphasizes the close integration of the reform of the income distribution system with the goal of common prosperity, and for the first time takes the improvement of the income distribution system as one of the tasks in the new period. It shows that more attention will be paid to the reform and improvement of the income distribution system in the future. The report of the 20th National Congress pointed out that to expand the income "cake", increase the income of low-income people, increase the income of residents' factors and property income; expanding the middle-income group, echoing the construction of an olive-shaped society of common prosperity; For the first time, the "standardized wealth accumulation mechanism" was proposed, once again emphasizing the regulation of excessive income, the suppression of illegal income, and the effective promotion of common prosperity.
The reform of the income distribution system aims to solve the "post-development problems" such as how to distribute wealth and how to avoid polarization, so as to escort high-quality economic development. Reforming the income distribution system is conducive to resolving the contradiction of unbalanced and inadequate development, allowing all social strata and the people to generally benefit from development, and enhancing the whole society's sense of gain, happiness and security of high-quality development results. Expanding the middle-income group and building an olive-shaped income system can help build long-term forces to promote consumption.
Since the 19th National Congress, the party and the state have become clearer in improving the distribution system and promoting common prosperity, and policy pilots have been steadily advancing. The Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee formally put forward "more obvious substantive progress for the common prosperity of all people" as a long-term goal. In May 2021, Zhejiang Province piloted the construction of a "common prosperity demonstration zone" to explore the way for the whole country to promote common prosperity with Zhejiang's pioneering experience.
In the future, the reform of the income distribution system will pay more attention to the coordination of primary distribution, redistribution and tertiary distribution. In terms of primary distribution, it is expected to explore various channels to increase the factor income of low- and middle-income groups and broaden the channels of property income; In terms of redistribution, taxes can be reduced and deductions can be increased for low- and middle-income groups, medical and other security systems can be improved, and the level of public services can be improved; In terms of the third distribution, it is necessary to improve the modern public welfare charity system, strengthen the capacity building of functional departments, and improve incentive and constraint mechanisms such as taxation and law.
2. Improve employment promotion mechanisms
Giving priority to employment is the mainland's basic national policy. Successive party congresses have emphasized improving the employment promotion mechanism and improving the quality of employment. In light of the current actual situation on the mainland and on the basis of adhering to the strategy of giving priority to employment, the report of the 20th National Congress put forward more focused employment policy goals: First, increase the employment guarantee for key groups and strengthen the employment assistance for people in difficulty; Second, it proposed for the first time to eliminate unreasonable restrictions and employment discrimination that affect equal employment; The third is to expand the coverage of employment security and strengthen the protection of the rights and interests of workers in flexible employment and new forms of employment.
Employment is the basic livelihood of the people and the key to achieving high-quality development. Achieving fuller and higher-quality employment is an inherent requirement for promoting high-quality development and comprehensively building a modern socialist country, and is an important foundation for practicing the people-centered development ideology and solidly promoting common prosperity. Only by improving the employment guarantee mechanism and implementing the employment priority strategy can we activate the driving force of the internal circulation of the economy and allow the people to share the fruits of economic development.
In recent years, a number of employment policies have been implemented and certain results have been achieved. Local governments and schools have carried out extensive vocational skills training and provided a full range of public employment services; The talent flow mechanism has been continuously innovated, and the allocation of labor resources has been optimized; The system and norms have been gradually improved, and the protection of workers' rights and interests has become more sound. The overall employment situation in the country is stable and stable.
In the face of the complex situation of the superposition of changes in the past century and the epidemic of the century, in the coming period, the employment on the mainland will still face total pressure and structural problems, and it is still necessary to increase efforts to promote the reform and improvement of the employment mechanism, expand employment capacity, improve employment quality, solve structural employment contradictions, and build a fairer employment environment.
3. Improve the social security system
The social security system is a safety net for people's lives and a stabilizer for the functioning of society. Compared with the reports of the 18th and 19th National Congresses, the reform of the social security system in the reports of the 20th National Congress is more comprehensive and specific. The report of the 20th National Congress pointed out that the development of a multi-level and multi-pillar endowment insurance system, the implementation of a gradual extension of the statutory retirement age, the improvement of a fair, unified, safe and standardized social security system, and the improvement of the basic endowment insurance national overall system.
Social security is the foundation of people's livelihood. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the development of social security in the mainland is facing new development situations such as shifting economic growth gears, intensifying population aging, and continuous changes in employment structure, and accelerating the improvement of a multi-level social security system that covers the whole people, coordinates urban and rural areas, is fair, unified and sustainable, which is of great significance to ensuring and improving people's livelihood, enhancing people's well-being, practicing the people-centered development concept, weaving a people's livelihood safety net, and ensuring stable and healthy economic and social development.
The mainland has built the world's largest social security system, generally achieved universal basic coverage of social security, made breakthroughs in the national overall planning of basic pensions, and generally realized provincial unified revenue and expenditure, but there are still some shortcomings in the development of a multi-level social security system, and the pressure on the balance of income and expenditure of social security funds continues to increase under the background of aging.
In the next stage, the mainland will continue to deepen the reform of the basic insurance system, develop supplementary guarantees, strengthen the support for the operation of the social security system, and achieve a fairer and more sustainable system. First, improve the social insurance system for flexible employment personnel, lower the threshold for participating in insurance, and continuously expand the coverage of social insurance; The second is to promote the national coordination of basic endowment insurance, accelerate the introduction and implementation of the plan for delaying the retirement age, and improve the management mechanism of transferring state-owned capital to enrich the social security fund; The third is to support the development of a multi-level and multi-pillar endowment insurance system through tax incentives and other means, improve the coverage rate of enterprise annuities, standardize the development of the third pillar endowment insurance, and accelerate the development of supplementary security; The fourth is to accelerate the establishment and improvement of the medical security system with Chinese characteristics, improve the critical illness insurance and relief system, implement the settlement of medical treatment in different places, and establish a long-term care insurance system.
4. Establish a housing system that balances supply and demand
The report of the 20th National Congress pointed out that to adhere to the positioning that houses are for living in, not for speculation, it is necessary to speed up the establishment of a housing system with multi-subject supply, multi-channel security, and rental and purchase. This formulation is consistent with the expression of the 19th National Congress, but the connotation has changed to a certain extent. In the future, the general idea of housing work is "housing not speculation" and "rental and purchase", the former is to set the tone of the real estate market to maintain stable and healthy development, the latter is clear that the way of housing supply will be richer and more comprehensive, generally will be led by high-quality development, to promote the construction of real estate, the primary welfare of people's livelihood.
The mainland real estate market will enter a stage of stable development, and the demand for rigid and improved housing will still be the main service object of the policy in the future. On the one hand, the floating population and the new population of the natural growth of the city will become the main source of rigid demand; On the other hand, the demand for improved housing has gradually become the people's demand for a better life.
Looking at the development plan in the past few years, in addition to continuing to develop the commercial housing market, the housing rental market has gradually become a major component of the real estate market. At the end of 2015, the Central Economic Work Conference proposed the development of the housing rental market for the first time, and at the end of 2020, the Central Economic Work Conference clearly stated that it was necessary to "solve the outstanding problems of housing in large cities", which was also included in the "Key Tasks of New-type Urbanization and Urban-Rural Integration Development in 2021". According to the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, 40 key cities across the country plan to raise funds to build 6.5 million units (rooms) of affordable rental housing, which is expected to solve the housing difficulties of nearly 20 million new citizens and young people. There is no doubt that affordable rental housing has become an important starting point for ensuring the housing needs of residents. At the end of August 2022, the first batch of three public REITs for affordable housing were listed on the exchange, marking the formation of a closed loop of "investment, financing, management and withdrawal" involved in affordable housing projects, providing effective financial tool support for affordable rental housing. In the past two years, land projects in some cities have also added an increase in the proportion of affordable housing construction. In the future, new urbanization will promote the increase in regional housing demand, housing supply will also provide more diversified choices, and the proportion of rental housing is expected to increase, better matching and meeting the housing needs of residents.
Six. Promote a new pattern of high-level opening up
Opening up to the outside world is the mainland's basic national policy. The report of the 20th National Congress pointed out that "promoting high-level opening up" puts forward higher requirements for the quality of opening up than the "comprehensively improving the level of open economy" of the 18th National Congress and the "promoting the formation of a new pattern of comprehensive opening up" of the 19th National Congress. The report of the 20th National Congress put forward three new important contents: "dual circulation linkage", that is, to attract global resource elements with domestic circulation, and enhance the linkage effect of domestic and international markets; "Institutional opening-up", that is, steadily expanding institutional opening-up such as rules, regulations, management, and standards; "Diversified economic and trade relations" means maintaining a pluralistic and stable international economic pattern and economic and trade relations.
Implementing high-level opening up is the need to promote high-quality economic development, and it is also an inherent requirement for deepening market system reform and economic structural reform. Under the century-old changes, the mainland's industrial upgrading and economic structure are facing challenges, and the reform of the economic system has also entered a period of tackling tough problems and deep waters, and it is necessary to promote opening up with greater courage, further integrate into the global division of labor system, and realize the conversion of old and new kinetic energy and industrial transformation and upgrading, so as to transform external pressure into endogenous power, stimulate market vitality, open up the "broken road", dredge the "major arteries", smooth the "microcirculation", and create favorable conditions for high-quality development. The new formulations of "institutionalized opening-up", "diversified economic and trade relations" and "dual circulation linkage" in the report of the 20th National Congress are of great practical significance. Promoting "institutional-type opening-up" is the fundamental guarantee for achieving a higher-level dynamic balance between supply and demand, which can make up for the "institutional shortcomings" of all-round, multi-level and wide-ranging opening-up, accelerate the docking of domestic regulations and international high-standard regulations, and expand the development space of the domestic economy. Building "diversified economic and trade relations" is a medium- and long-term strategy for stabilizing exports and economic growth and expanding new economic and trade growth poles, and is an important measure to enhance the mainland's new advantages in international economic cooperation and competition. Building diversified economic and trade relations can effectively cope with the negative impact of anti-globalization and unilateral protectionism under the impact of the epidemic, and is the cornerstone of achieving a high level of opening up. Realizing "dual circulation linkage" can effectively combine the internal "institutional opening-up" and the external "diversified economic and trade relations", build a mutually beneficial and win-win, diversified and balanced, safe and efficient open economic system, smooth the domestic circulation, enhance the international circulation, drive the international cycle with the domestic circulation, promote the domestic circulation, form a virtuous cycle and achieve high-quality development on the basis of high-level opening up.
The mainland has made positive progress in promoting high-level opening up to the outside world at multiple levels, angles and dimensions. In terms of "institutional opening-up", since the establishment of the first free trade pilot zone in Shanghai Pudong in 2013, Guangdong, Tianjin, Fujian and other free trade zones have been established one after another, forming a "1+3+7" pattern of "1+3+7", coordinated between the east, middle and west, and coordinated by land and sea. The Hainan Free Trade Port Construction Master Plan promulgated in 2020 experimented with institutional and structural innovations with high standards of investment and trade. In terms of "diversified economic and trade relations", the mainland has signed 19 free trade agreements with 26 countries and regions, an increase of nearly one times over 10 years ago. The mainland has fully fulfilled its WTO commitments, the average import tariff level of all commodities has dropped from 15.3% in 2001 to 9.8% in 2010 and 7.4% in 2021, and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) has come into effect in 2022, becoming a new driving force for the growth of mainland exports, and regional trading partners are increasing. In terms of "dual circulation linkage", since May 2020, when the construction of a "new pattern of domestic and international dual circulation" was proposed, the domestic and international circulation systems from the aspects of industry, market and factors have been gradually promoted. The Action Plan for Building a High-standard Market System in January 2021 and the Opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Accelerating the Construction of a Unified National Market in April 2022 have promoted the further opening up of domestic circulation, accelerated the removal of regional barriers, expanded the opening up of the financial services and social service industries, and reduced restrictions on domestic and international market access, which is the embodiment of the deepening of "reform and opening up".
In the next stage, the mainland will continue to deepen institutional opening up internally, expand diversified economic and trade externally, integrate the two sets of internal and external circulation systems with a dual-circulation linkage mechanism, and promote high-level and high-quality opening-up. First of all, as an important carrier and starting point for institutional opening-up, the innovative construction of free trade ports and free trade zones may be the focus of the next step. Free trade zones with relatively mature conditions such as Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone and Hainan Free Trade Port will take the lead in experimenting, take the initiative to integrate with international free trade zones, truly achieve "domestic and foreign customs", achieve high-standard "three zeros" (zero tariffs, zero barriers, zero subsidies), and promote other free trade zones to gradually "copy" and "promote", creating a good foundation for domestic institutional opening up and high-level opening up. Second, promote and expand diversified regional trade agreements in an orderly manner. Actively promote the accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). In view of the current critical period of digital trade development and the good framework foundation of RCEP, it is possible to simultaneously promote the negotiations on joining the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA), the negotiations on the China-Japan-Korea Free Trade Agreement and the upgrade of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area 3.0. Third, actively explore new models that are conducive to the construction of dual circulation and the opening of domestic and foreign market systems. On the basis of external opening-up, promote the unification and opening of internal factor markets such as land, labor, capital, technology, and data, improve the institutional environment for fair competition among all types of market entities, promote more standardized and transparent access rules in various regions, improve the adaptability of the supply system to domestic and international demand, and form a higher level of dynamic balance between demand pulling supply and supply creating demand.
The report of the 20th National Congress also put forward the "six key points" of opening up to the outside world. The first is to accelerate the construction of a strong trade country, that is, to promote the optimization and upgrading of trade in goods, innovate the development mechanism of trade in services, develop digital trade, and continuously expand new formats and models of trade. The second is to create a first-class business environment, that is, reasonably reduce the negative list of foreign investment access, protect the rights and interests of foreign investment in accordance with the law, and form a healthy market-oriented, law-based and international business environment. The third is to promote the high-quality development of the "Belt and Road", that is, under the guidance of the Belt and Road strategy, adhere to the equal emphasis on bringing in and going out, and strengthen regional cooperation and innovation and opening up to the outside world. The fourth is to optimize the regional opening layout of the eastern, central and western regions, that is, consolidate the leading position of the eastern coastal areas in opening up, improve the level of opening up in the central and western regions and the northeast region, and accelerate the construction of a new land-sea channel in the western region. Fifth, improve the level of free trade zone construction, that is, accelerate the construction of Hainan free trade port, implement the strategy of upgrading the pilot free trade zone, give the pilot free trade zone greater autonomy in reform, explore a more open and advanced management and operation model, and expand the network construction of high-standard free trade zones facing the world. Sixth, promote the internationalization of RMB in an orderly manner, that is, further expand the use of RMB in cross-border trade and investment, continue to improve the level of cross-border trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, and steadily promote the convertibility of RMB capital account.
Report Writing Team:
Lian Ping, Wang Yunjin, Chang Ran, Zhang Bingwen, Ma Hong, Dong Chengxi, Li Xiaoqing, Ding Yujia, Deng Zhichao