Promote reforms in key areas and accelerate the improvement of the basic system of the market economy

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core has used greater political courage and wisdom to plan reform and opening up as a whole, strengthen the top-level design of reform, and give full play to the leading role of economic system reform under the framework of comprehensively deepening reform, so as to solve the contradictions and problems in various fields, at all levels and in all links in a more targeted manner. The Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee made distribution according to work the mainstay, the coexistence of various modes of distribution, and the elevation of the socialist market economic system to the basic economic system. Since the promulgation and implementation of important documents such as the Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Accelerating the Improvement of the Socialist Market Economy System in the New Era, a series of major economic system reforms have been accelerated, a number of institutional and institutional obstacles have been removed, and development momentum has been continuously accumulated.

Firmly grasping the primary task of high-quality development requires the construction of a more systematic, complete, mature and stereotyped high-level socialist market economic system

When participating in the deliberations of the Jiangsu delegation at the second session of the 14th National People's Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that around the construction of a high-level socialist market economy system, accelerate the improvement of property rights protection, market access, fair competition, social credit and other basic systems of the market economy. After more than 40 years of reform and exploration and unremitting efforts, the mainland has successfully realized the transformation from a planned economic structure to a socialist market economic structure. The market economy is an economic system that regulates supply and demand with market price signals, and it is fundamentally different from the planned economy in terms of its basic system and operating mechanism.

The basic system of the socialist market economy involves key areas and key links such as property rights, access, competition, and credit, and continuing to deepen the reform task of "pulling one into the whole body" in these key areas is conducive to promoting the realization of effective incentives for property rights, free flow of factors, flexible price reflection, fair and orderly competition, and survival of the fittest of enterprises, and can provide a basic guarantee for the effective operation of the socialist market economy.

It is precisely because of the necessity and urgency of comprehensively perfecting the basic system of the market economy that the primary task of speeding up the construction of a large unified national market is to strengthen the unification of the rules of the basic market system. It is necessary to speed up the improvement of systems and rules in key areas and the communication and coordination mechanism for major policies, accelerate the mutual recognition of standards, and improve the uniformity of policy formulation, the consistency of rules and the coordination of implementation. On the one hand, by further promoting the key tasks of efficient market connectivity, we will accelerate the unification of market systems, facilities, and supervision; On the other hand, by continuously eliminating outstanding problems such as local protection and market segmentation, we will regulate improper market competition and market intervention. In addition, Shenzhen, Shanghai Pudong New Area and other places continue to promote major reform pilots, and a number of pilot reform measures also mainly involve strengthening the institutional construction in the field of basic systems, focusing on highlighting the breakthrough and demonstration leading role of reform pilots.

Comprehensively improve the property rights protection system and continue to strengthen the property rights incentive mechanism

To build a high-level socialist market economic system, it is necessary to improve the modern property rights system with clear ownership, clear rights and responsibilities, strict protection and smooth circulation, which is the meaning and important support of the high-level problem. The modern property rights protection system is based on the principle of fairness, and is a complete system for equal protection of the property rights of state-owned, private, foreign-funded and other enterprises under various forms of ownership in accordance with the law. On the one hand, the three-year task of reforming state-owned enterprises has been successfully completed, and the property rights management system for operational state-owned assets, which is mainly based on the management of capital, has been further improved. On the other hand, it is necessary to speed up the legislative process of the Law on the Promotion of the Private Economy, implement the requirements of "equal treatment" in terms of system and law, comprehensively and equally protect the property rights of the private economy in accordance with the law, and seriously investigate and deal with all kinds of improper acts that infringe on the legitimate rights and interests of private enterprises in accordance with the law.

The Civil Code of the People's Republic of China occupies an important position in the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics, embodying distinctive Chinese characteristics, practical characteristics and characteristics of the times. The Civil Code of the Mainland focuses on safeguarding the basic economic system and promoting the organic integration of public ownership and market economy. Accelerating the construction of a unified national market requires the establishment of a unified property rights protection system, involving the improvement of a unified and standardized law enforcement and judicial protection mechanism for cases involving property rights disputes, strengthening law enforcement and judicial coordination, and standardizing the rules and procedures for compulsory measures involving property rights in the field of law enforcement. In the practice of the rule of law, through improving protection mechanisms such as appeals, reviews, and retrials in property rights cases involving enterprises, promote the lawful screening and correction of unjust and wrongly decided cases involving enterprises and the formation of a normalized mechanism, so as to more effectively protect the property rights of enterprises and the personal and property safety of entrepreneurs in accordance with the law.

From the perspective of deepening the reform of traditional elements such as land property rights system, it is necessary to continuously improve the system of "separation of three rights" of rural contracted land, deepen the reform of the rural collective property rights system, and continuously improve the property rights capacity. From the perspective of the construction of the property rights system in the fields of data, knowledge, and environment, the pace has been significantly accelerated in recent years, including the refinement of the rules for the creation, application, trading and protection of intellectual property rights, the strengthening of intellectual property protection in new fields and new forms of business, the establishment of a punitive damages system for intellectual property infringement, and the innovation of the intellectual property litigation system to smooth the docking mechanism between intellectual property litigation and arbitration and mediation. Some regions are striving to explore cross-regional co-management and co-governance of intellectual property rights, and further promote the coordinated governance of intellectual property protection.

Improve the unified market access system, and strive to improve the efficiency of market access

The mainland continues to strengthen the top-level design of the market access system, and strives to promote the construction of a new market access system that is more open and transparent, standardized and orderly, with equal competition, clear rights and responsibilities, and strong supervision. Implement a negative list system for market access nationwide, and promote a major transformation of the market access management model. The core feature of the unified national market access system is to strictly implement the management model of "one national list", strictly prohibit all regions or departments from issuing lists or documents with the nature of access on their own, and vigorously maintain the unity and authority of the negative list system for market access.

In terms of continuous improvement of the market access system, the mainland has established a dynamic adjustment mechanism for the negative list for market access, and has revised the national list three times from 2019 to 2023. Focusing on the service industry, we have further relaxed access restrictions in some cities on a pilot basis, and have introduced special measures to relax market access in Hainan, Shenzhen, Hengqin, the Guangdong-Macao In-Depth Cooperation Zone, Pudong New Area, Guangzhou Nansha and other places, so as to continuously optimize the access environment for new business forms and new fields. At the same time, we will carry out nationwide investigation of typical cases of violations of the negative list for market access, focus on cleaning up all kinds of explicit or implicit market barriers that hinder fair access, and focus on cleaning up and eliminating a number of improper interventions involving market access based on the demands of enterprises and people's livelihood concerns.

In terms of improving the efficiency of market access, it is very important to establish and improve the market access assessment system and steadily promote the evaluation of access efficiency. Yunnan, Fujian, Ningxia and other pilot provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities have successively compiled market access efficiency evaluation index systems and organized evaluation pilots, and the relevant pilot experience can be promoted on a larger scale across the country in a timely manner.

Strengthen the basic position of competition policy and maintain a unified system of fair competition

The prosperity and order of the market economy complement each other, and it is necessary to pay equal attention to promoting development and supervising according to law, adhere to the stance of encouraging competition and opposing monopoly, and dialectically handle the relationship between market vitality and order. First of all, it is necessary to deepen the reform of monopoly industries, promote the market-oriented reform of competitive links in the energy, railway, telecommunications, public utilities and other industries, earnestly liberalize the access to competitive businesses, fully introduce market competition mechanisms, and strengthen economic and social regulations on natural monopoly links.

As far as the construction of the anti-monopoly rule of law is concerned, the focus is on the implementation of the newly revised Anti-Monopoly Law of the People's Republic of China and the Detailed Rules for the Implementation of the Fair Competition Review System and other laws and regulations, especially to strengthen the rigid constraints of the fair competition review system, continue to improve the rules and mechanisms for review in key areas and industries, unify and standardize review standards and procedures, introduce third-party review and assessment mechanisms, and effectively improve the efficiency of review. Coordinate the incremental review and stock clean-up to ensure that the stock policies and improper interference that hinder the unified national market and fair competition should be cleared up.

As far as improving the institutional framework and policy implementation mechanism of fair competition is concerned, the key is to effectively strengthen the coordination and guarantee of fair competition policy and industrial policy, optimize the implementation mode of industrial policy, and strengthen the implementation of competition policy covering all aspects before, during, and after the event. At the same time, we will carry out market competition assessments in a timely manner, establish a green channel for reporting violations of fair competition and a feedback mechanism for handling them, and ensure that the requirements for equal treatment of all types of business entities are implemented.

In recent years, positive progress has been made in cultivating and promoting a culture of fair competition throughout society and strengthening the effectiveness of anti-monopoly and anti-unfair competition law enforcement. The relevant authorities have revised the Anti-Monopoly Compliance Guidelines for Business Operators in a timely manner to further encourage enterprises to consciously strengthen their awareness and behavior of compliance, which is conducive to creating a social environment of fair competition.

Build a unified social credit system, and strengthen new types of credit-based regulation

One of the essential characteristics of the market economy is the credit economy, and in order to consolidate the credit cornerstone of the operation of the socialist market economy, it is necessary to accelerate the advancement of social credit legislation and continuously improve the system of credit laws, regulations, and standards. Accelerating the establishment of a unified national market clearly requires the completion of a unified social credit system, and the formation of a credit information network covering all credit subjects, all types of credit information, and all regions of the country. Relevant departments have compiled and released the "National Basic Catalog of Public Credit Information" and the "National Basic List of Punishment Measures for Untrustworthiness", vigorously promoting the high-quality development of the social credit system. In recent years, mechanisms for the sharing and integration of Public Credit Information and financial information have been strengthened nationwide, and the convenience of financing for small, medium, and micro enterprises has been effectively improved by advancing the establishment of a national network of integrated financing credit service platforms.

In terms of improving the social credit system, it is necessary to promote a better combination of an effective market and a promising government. On the one hand, improve the credit reporting system covering the entire society, cultivate credit reporting institutions and credit rating agencies with global discourse, and promote the orderly and healthy development of the credit services market. On the other hand, promote the orderly opening of government departments' credit information to business entities, and at the same time strengthen the monitoring and governance of creditworthiness in government affairs and the pursuit of accountability for untrustworthiness, especially through improving mechanisms for creditworthiness performance of government contracts, and continuously optimizing the environment for the development of the private economy. The main aspect of the role of the government's "visible hand" is also to speed up the improvement of a new type of credit-based regulatory mechanism. Comprehensively assess the credit status of all types of enterprises, optimize the allocation of regulatory resources based on credit risk, advance hierarchical and categorical credit regulation in key areas such as food and drugs, and production safety, and strive to increase the effectiveness of regulation.

Various localities have also accumulated a lot of successful experience in improving the social credit system. For example, strengthen the collection, sharing, disclosure and application of credit information, promote credit products and services that benefit the people and enterprises, and continue to implement the "Shini Loan" and other "Shini +" projects; Comprehensively promote the credit pledge system, improving the process of aggregating and announcing information related to credit pledges in light of local conditions; Actively support the reshaping of business entities' credit, and improve mechanisms for credit restoration of untrustworthy entities.

(The author is a researcher and deputy director of the Institute of Economics, China Academy of Macroeconomics)