Zhang Liqun: Achieving full employment is an important way to promote the expansion of middle-income groups

On August 17, the tenth meeting of the Central Financial and Economic Commission (hereinafter referred to as the "Meeting") was held, and promoting common prosperity is a major topic and the focus of market attention.

"Common prosperity is common prosperity that still has a certain gap, and the fundamental way to achieve it is to work together, not to kill the rich and help the poor, and not to fall into the trap of welfarism." Han Wenxiu, deputy director of the Central Finance Office in charge of daily work, explained.

How to correctly understand common prosperity? Under the goal of common prosperity, how to adjust the excessively high income and expand the middle-income group? In this regard, the Beijing News reporter interviewed Zhang Liqun, a researcher at the Macroeconomic Research Department of the Development Research Center of the State Council. He said that common prosperity should be based on the cake of continuous and rapid expansion, and the cake must play a good role in the market, and we must continue to improve the relevant institutional mechanisms through continuous deepening reform, and strive to improve the efficiency of resource allocation.

Zhang Liqun believes that to accelerate the expansion of middle-income groups, the most important thing is to achieve full employment on the basis of full release of economic growth potential. "There are currently 140 million market entities in China that are small and micro enterprises, which provide a large number of jobs, and if these market entities develop well and grow well, full employment will be achieved." In order to make these market players have vitality and vitality, it is necessary to increase the economic growth rate a little more. ”

Common prosperity should be based on making the cake bigger and bigger at a faster pace

Beijing News: Why should we shift from "first getting rich and then getting rich later" to common prosperity? How to correctly understand common prosperity?

Zhang Liqun: The foothold of common prosperity is first of all in terms of "prosperity," that is to say, we must always do a good job in the central work of economic construction and never waver at any time. How to make the cake grow and expand faster is the most important, so we must deal with the relationship between efficiency and fairness.

To make the cake bigger, we must give full play to the role of the market, and we must continue to improve the relevant institutional mechanisms through continuous deepening of reform, and strive to improve the efficiency of resource allocation. Primary distribution should be distributed according to the rules of the market, not egalitarianism and "big pot rice". To achieve common prosperity, we must give better play to the role of the government, and in public goods such as public services, infrastructure, and basic social security, the government must earnestly assume responsibility and do a solid job.

Common prosperity is the goal of our long-term struggle, and now we emphasize common prosperity, first, based on the relatively thick accumulation formed in the first hundred years, which has made the realization of common prosperity have a better material foundation; second, the gradual improvement of the system and mechanism of the socialist market economy with Chinese characteristics has provided institutional support and guarantee for the realization of common prosperity.

Through decades of reform and opening up, we have become more and more groped to play a good role in the allocation of resources, improve the efficiency of resource allocation, and at the same time the government should do a good job in doing what should be done, including public services such as infrastructure, education, medical and health care, and basic social security.

Adjusting excessively high income through tax policy, it is recommended to strictly calculate various incomes

Beijing News: How to adjust the excessively high income, which groups of people should adjust the income?

Zhang Liqun: Regulating excessive income is mainly achieved through taxation.

It is necessary to adjust the excessive income gap through income tax and other means, and people can be encouraged to get rich more through hard work, by working in various sectors of the real economy, and by improving the level of skills. If there are too many social gains overnight, it will be detrimental to the guidance and incentive of the economic production activities of the whole society.

The market will adjust the distribution of income through supply and demand, but the demand is diverse, and the related income gap will sometimes be large, for example, entertainment industry stars may earn high incomes.

However, on the one hand, we should have a certain degree of tolerance for the distribution of income regulated by the market, the market needs dynamic competition, and the survival of the fittest; on the other hand, the market is not omnipotent, for example, education, health care, literature and art, etc., if completely regulated by the market, it may not be able to do well. Therefore, it is necessary to give full play to the role of the government, regulate excessive income and unreasonable income, and then encourage people to start a business and innovate more, and make greater efforts in improving technical skills.

How to grasp the degree of inclusion? It is very important to do a good job in tax regulation of various types of income, strict statistics of various incomes, and reasonable adjustment of taxes on this basis.

The expansion of middle-income groups is focused on achieving full employment

Beijing News: How to expand the proportion of middle-income groups? Under the goal of common prosperity, how to promote fiscal and tax reform and income distribution system reform?

Zhang Liqun: The middle-income group is accelerating its expansion, and the most important thing is to achieve full employment on the basis of the full release of economic growth potential, and try to let all Chinese participate in the construction of China's modern society and contribute their wisdom and talents.

At present, 140 million market entities in China are small and micro enterprises, which provide a large number of jobs, and if these market entities develop and grow well, full employment will be achieved. In order to make these market players have vitality and vitality, it is necessary to increase the economic growth rate a little more.

Now it is still necessary to do a good job in expanding domestic demand, fully release the demand potential of the domestic market, so that large and medium-sized enterprises, unicorns, hidden champion enterprises and small and micro enterprises can have orders and a way out. Most enterprises have a smooth capital circulation and the ability to sustainably develop, and then accommodate more people to work, so that the middle-income group can continue to expand.

In addition, to achieve full coverage of education, so that all children, adolescents have a roughly fair starting line, to let everyone participate in the entire entrepreneurship, innovation of the starting point is roughly the same. This requires us to take multiple measures at the same time and jointly grasp and grasp the cause of education with full coverage.

Beijing News: The meeting also proposed that the smooth upward flow channel will create opportunities for more people to get rich and form a development environment in which everyone participates. In your opinion, how to achieve a smooth upward flow channel?

Zhang Liqun: The smooth and upward flow channel is, first, to further improve the market rules and order in the primary distribution, give full play to the role of the market in the adjustment of income distribution, and in this regard, we must have the spirit of tolerance, mobilize the vitality of innovation and entrepreneurship of members of society, and do not engage in egalitarianism and big pot rice.

The three distributions are promoted on the principle of voluntary initiative of enterprises and individuals

Beijing News: How to understand "three allocations", and how to carry out "three distributions"?

Zhang Liqun: Primary distribution is market distribution; the key to redistribution is to give full play to the role of the government, including continuously improving the supply level of public services and public goods; in addition, it is necessary to rationally adjust excessive income through taxation, eliminate unreasonable income through system construction, and ban illegal income.

The three distributions are mainly achieved through social charity, etc., and are promoted under the principle of voluntary participation of enterprises and individuals.

The three distributions should be combined with the construction of the social governance structure and the improvement of the governance system. Specifically, the three distributions should be a synergy formed by the roles of residents, enterprises, different forms of social organizations, and the government. In turn, social welfare undertakings can receive more and more results, and gradually form a relatively perfect system and form a good social atmosphere.

In fact, we have been practicing, including social donations for major natural disasters, including the active assistance of all sectors of society during the new crown epidemic. This kind of social activity is constantly growing with economic development and social progress, and it is constantly standardized and improved, which is a gradual process.

Common prosperity should be a combination of top-level design and grassroots initiative, and it is a practical activity of the whole society

Beijing News: Previously, Zhejiang Province was selected as a common prosperity demonstration zone, why was Zhejiang selected, and what experience can be learned from the world?

Zhang Liqun: Achieving common prosperity should be a combination of top-level design and grassroots initiative, and it is a common practice activity of the whole society. Taking Zhejiang as a demonstration point will have a positive driving effect. All localities should do a good job in economic development, do a good job in ensuring public products and public services in accordance with their specific conditions, do a good job in deepening reform and opening up, and actively form more fresh and successful experiences.

Common prosperity depends on long-term efforts, long-term hard work, and gradually make the common prosperity cake bigger and better, and the distribution of this cake is more and more standardized and more reasonable.

From an international point of view, the nordic welfare state system can be said to be a model under the framework of the capitalist system, which cannot be summarized as the common prosperity that we are all striving for, and the common prosperity in China is based on the essential attributes of the socialist system and is a high-level guarantee for the common interests of all members of society on the basis of the great development of productive forces.

However, there are some nordic practices that can be learned, on the one hand, governments have to do more to provide public goods, and on the other hand, excessive high welfare may have an impact on efficiency.

Beijing News shell financial reporter Hu Meng Hou Runfang Editor Chen Li Proofreader Liu Jun