Promote the high-quality development of special economic zones with high-standard market systems
[40 Years of Special Economic Zones @ Governance Modernization]
40 years ago, our party and the country made a major decision to establish special economic zones.
Over the past 40 years, the five special economic zones of Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Shantou, Xiamen, and Hainan have fulfilled their missions and have written a magnificent chapter in the great historical process of building socialism with Chinese characteristics. The "experimental field" has played an important "window" role in opening up to the outside world and has become the "forerunner" and "vanguard" of reform and opening up.
Socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era, which is a new historical orientation for my country's development.
Facing the new situation, new tasks, and new challenges, the special economic zones must also undertake new historical missions.
At present, the global pandemic of the new crown pneumonia epidemic has accelerated the world's major changes unseen in a century. Protectionism and unilateralism have risen, and the world economy is in a downturn.
The domestic development environment is also undergoing profound changes, the problem of unbalanced and insufficient development is still prominent, and innovation capabilities are not yet suitable for high-quality development.
In this context, the special economic zone must continue to promote reform and opening up to achieve new breakthroughs, form a new pattern of higher-level reform and opening up, and achieve high-quality development of its own, especially in promoting the formation of a domestic cycle as the main body, a domestic and international dual cycle. Play a role in the process of promoting the new development pattern.
One of the important tasks is to provide the country with more replicable and popularized experience in the practice of promoting the construction of a high-standard market system.
The Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China adopted the “Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Several Major Issues Concerning Upholding and Improving the Socialist System with Chinese Characteristics, Promoting the Modernization of National Governance System and Governance As an important part of "speeding up the improvement of the socialist market economic system", important arrangements have been made in "improving the fair competition system, fully implementing the negative list system for market access, reforming the production licensing system, and improving the bankruptcy system."
It should be noted that the market system is a necessary condition for the market mechanism to function.
Building a high-standard market system is an inevitable choice to better meet the requirements of high-quality economic development. It is conducive to better stimulating innovative vitality, cultivating new drivers of development, continuous improvement of total factor productivity, continuous optimization of economic structure, and practical promotion. Quality change, efficiency change, and power change of economic development.
This is also the meaning of the topic of promoting the formation of a new development pattern with the domestic cycle as the main body and the domestic and international double cycles mutually promoting each other.
As my country's socialist market economy development environment is the most active and the market economic system reform is the most forefront of the region, the special economic zone has taken the lead in the exploration and practice of building a high-standard market system, and it is of great significance to promote the high-quality development of the special economic zone with a high-standard market system.
Specifically, we can make effective efforts in the following aspects:
The first is to strive to create a legal, international, and convenient business environment and improve the fair competition system.
It is necessary to optimize the legal environment that is conducive to fair competition among various market players, and equally protect the property rights and independent management rights of enterprises of various ownerships in accordance with the law; strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights, protect the legitimate rights and interests of entrepreneurs in accordance with the law, and enable entrepreneurs to form long-term and stable development expectations; Implement the market access negative list system and make new breakthroughs in promoting trade and investment liberalization and facilitation; further promote streamlining of administration and decentralization, provide more quality public services, improve the level of government services, and support enterprises to better participate in market cooperation and competition , To effectively reduce the operating costs of enterprises, especially the tax burden, financing costs, and logistics costs of small, medium and micro enterprises.
The second is to build a more complete market-based allocation system mechanism for factors.
Improving the market-oriented allocation of factors is an inherent requirement for building a unified, open, and orderly competitive market system. It is an important part of upholding and improving the basic socialist economic system and speeding up the improvement of the socialist market economic system.
In practice, special economic zones should continue to deepen the reform of the market-oriented allocation of factors, promote the independent and orderly flow of factors, improve the efficiency of factor allocation, and further stimulate the creativity and market vitality of the whole society.
In particular, it is necessary to give full play to the decisive role of the market in resource allocation, unblock the flow channels of land, labor, capital, technology, data and other factors, ensure that different market entities have equal access to production factors, and promote factor allocation to achieve benefits based on market rules, market prices, and market competition. Maximization and efficiency optimization.
The third is to promote the formation of a new pattern of comprehensive opening up.
Most special economic zones are adjacent to the international market and backed by the domestic market, and they have long served as a window for my country to open up to the outside world.
Under the new situation, the special economic zone should make better use of both domestic and international markets and resources, and continuously expand the depth and breadth of opening up. Relying on its own advantages in location, policy, industry and system, it should actively connect with high-standard international markets. Trade rules, build a new higher-level open economic system, attract global talent, capital, industry and other high-quality element resources to gather, and form new advantages in international cooperation and competition in an open domestic and international double cycle.
At the same time, it is necessary to actively participate in the reform of the global economic governance system and promote the improvement of a more fair and reasonable international economic governance system.
The fourth is to vigorously protect and stimulate the vitality of market players.
The main body of the market is the power carrier of the economy. The market system is good or not, and the efficiency is not high. The feeling of the market main body is the most real.
In the process of building a high-standard market system, we must be good at using reform thinking and reform methods, and overall consideration of short-term response and mid- to long-term development needs. We must not only strategically set the situation, but also make good decisions at key points and give full play to The decisive role of the market in the allocation of resources, to better play the role of the government.
It is necessary to focus on key issues, actively mobilize the polarities of all parties, and timely understand what entrepreneurs think, what they are trapped in, and they should also listen to the opinions and suggestions of entrepreneurs when formulating policies related to enterprises, so as to promote the continuous improvement of the market system.
It must be recognized that upholding and strengthening the party’s leadership is the “sacred needle” for the special economic zone to overcome all difficulties and challenges. To build a high-standard market system and promote the high-quality development of the special economic zone, it is necessary to give play to the leadership core role of the party in overseeing the overall situation and coordinating all parties. The party’s institutional advantages in leading economic work have been transformed into governance efficiency, and the reform of the economic system has been continuously deepened and implemented.
It is necessary to further strengthen the "four consciousnesses", strengthen the "four self-confidences", and achieve the "two maintenances". From a strategic and overall perspective, we must have a profound understanding of the significance of accelerating the improvement of the socialist market economic system, and put the party's leadership throughout the deepening of the economy. The whole process of system reform and the construction of a high-standard market system runs through all links such as planning construction ideas, formulating construction plans, and promoting construction implementation to ensure that it always moves in the right direction.
(Author: University of International Business and Economics Institute Distinguished Fellow Shenzhen Gao Hongbo)