At present, the world is undergoing major changes unseen in a century, and the international and domestic environment facing the development of the mainland is becoming more complex and changeable, which puts forward new requirements for in-depth reform and high-level opening up. General Secretary Xi Jinping has repeatedly emphasized that "steadily promote the opening up of rules, regulations, management, standards and other institutions". Steadily expanding institutional opening-up, stepping up the implementation of more systematic, forward-looking, and strategic new measures for institutional opening-up, and unleashing new dividends of opening-up will be the key tasks of the mainland's in-depth reform and high-level opening-up in the coming period.
Accurately grasp the basic connotation of institutional opening-up
"Institutional-type opening-up" is the core content of the mainland's high-level opening-up, which is not only a complex systems project, but also a deep-seated reform. Compared with the "opening up on the border" under international economic and trade rules for a period of time, institutional opening can be regarded as the opening of rules and institutional systems, that is, through in-depth domestic reforms, promoting the two-way organic connection between the domestic rule system and basic institutional framework and international high-standard economic and trade rules, and providing the world with the opening of effective institutional supply through institutional innovation and spillover. Among them, "rules, regulations, management, and standards", as the core elements of institutional opening-up, are highly related and constitute an organic whole. "Openness of rules" refers to the opening up of the initiative to connect with international economic and trade rules, promote the improvement of domestic rules, and actively participate in and lead the construction of the system of international economic and trade rules; "Openness of regulations" refers to the opening up of the socialist market economy characterized by the improvement of the socialist market economic system characterized by "the market plays a decisive role in the allocation of resources and the role of the government is better played"; and "openness of management" It is to break down the institutional and institutional obstacles that hinder the fair competition of business entities through domestic reforms, reduce transaction costs to the greatest extent, establish a system of policies and regulations conducive to the flow of factors, and create a first-class business environment that is market-oriented, law-based, and internationalized.
Since the beginning of reform and opening up, the mainland has gradually expanded its institutional opening up
In the early days of reform and opening up, the mainland gradually implemented the policy of opening up to the outside world with preferential policies as the main feature, actively developed the export-oriented economy with the opening up of low-cost factors, established a basic legal framework for foreign investment with the Law on Sino-Foreign Joint Ventures as the main body, and continuously deepened reforms, perfected and perfected the foreign-related legal system, and guided the flow of advanced elements such as international capital, technology, and management to the country. In 2001, the mainland joined the World Trade Organization (WTO), which started the process of exploring and practicing institutional opening-up, benchmarking the WTO rules, improving the socialist market economic system, deepening the reform of the foreign-related economic system, improving the degree of trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, and rapidly integrating into the international division of labor system, so that the economy achieved rapid economic growth. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the mainland has focused on expanding institutional opening-up. The Belt and Road Initiative was put forward to accelerate the construction of a new open economic system, promote the construction of free trade zones and free trade ports, and timely replicate and promote 349 institutional innovation achievements in free trade zones and free trade ports, so as to promote the organic connection between domestic reform and expanded opening up. The Foreign Investment Law and its implementing regulations have been promulgated, laws and regulations that are inconsistent with the Foreign Investment Law have been comprehensively cleaned up, and a pre-establishment national treatment plus negative list management system has been implemented, providing institutional guarantees for the protection of the legitimate rights and interests of foreign investment. In 2021, the mainland formally applied to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA), actively participating in global economic and trade governance. The mainland has become a major trading partner of more than 140 countries and regions, ranking first in the world in terms of total trade in goods, and ranking among the top in the world in attracting foreign capital and foreign investment.
The new era has put forward new requirements for institutional opening-up
Institutional opening-up is the key to coping with the great changes in the world unseen in a century, and it is also an inherent requirement for promoting reform and high-quality development through opening-up.
On the one hand, to effectively respond to the great changes in the world unseen in a century, it is necessary to steadily expand institutional opening-up. At present, the proportion of emerging markets and developing countries in the global economy has risen to about 40%, and the contribution rate to global economic growth has reached 80%. Climate change and geopolitical conflicts have led to large economies formulating economic and trade rules based on their own development, and the global industrial chain, supply chain, and value chain are nearshoring, friendly, and short-chain, and the cost of economic and trade cooperation has risen sharply. The rapid development of cross-border e-commerce and digital trade, as well as the multi-point breakthroughs and cross-convergence of cutting-edge key technologies such as 5G and artificial intelligence, have promoted the rapid development of emerging industries represented by industrial Internet equipment, artificial intelligence and big data services, and countries have seized the strategic commanding heights of new rules and standards. The international situation is complex and changeable, but peace and development are still the main themes of the times, and the mainland's status as the largest developing country in the world has not changed, which requires the mainland to steadily expand institutional opening-up, jointly build a system-based global economic governance system under the framework of promoting the United Nations, and put forward more Chinese proposals; take more initiative in reforming the unfair and irrational international economic and trade rules led by the West; and dominate the global rule-making power in areas where it has a leading edge.
On the other hand, high-quality development requires institutional opening-up to promote in-depth reforms. The mainland is at a critical stage of the beginning of building a modern socialist country in an all-round way, and high-quality development is facing development bottlenecks such as limited flow of factors, prominent structural contradictions, and unbalanced development. It is necessary to learn from and introduce international high-standard rules and other institutional innovation achievements, deepen the reform of the "post-border" management system, give full play to the decisive role of the market in the allocation of resources, give better play to the role of the government, build a high-standard market system, improve the basic systems of the market economy such as property rights protection, market access, fair competition, and social credit, and create a market-oriented, law-based, and law-based system. The international first-class business environment stimulates the vitality and creativity of micro-business entities, reduces transaction costs, improves total factor productivity, attracts the agglomeration of global advanced production factors, and forms an innovation ecology with global competitiveness.
(The author is a researcher at the China Center for International Economic Exchanges)