(Economic Observation) To build a unified national market, how to break local segmentation and market protection?
China News Service, Beijing, May 19 (Wang Enbo and Liu Wenwen) "The Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Accelerating the Construction of a Large National Market" was released a few days ago.
Focusing on "breaking local protection and market segmentation", this heavy document reminds all localities not to engage in "small but complete" self-circulation, let alone regional blockades in the name of "internal circulation".
To build a unified national market, breaking local protection and market segmentation is the most important, the most difficult, and the key.
What are the practical, hard and real tricks in the "Opinions"?
The person in charge of the Department of Economic Reform of the National Development and Reform Commission of China told reporters that if the market segmentation problem is not resolved, and the discriminatory and hidden policy barriers and barriers between localities are not broken, it will be difficult for various production factors to be integrated into production, distribution, circulation and consumption. There is no way to talk about the circulation of economic activities if they are organically connected.
But local protection and market segmentation are old and difficult problems.
According to the above-mentioned person in charge, some places have set up explicit or implicit barriers to protect local markets, enterprises and products for the sake of local economic growth, industrial development, tax growth and employment creation.
But overall, these protection policies lead to low-level repetitive construction and homogeneous competition, hinder the survival of the fittest in the market, and hinder the efficient flow of factor resources.
In an interview with a reporter from China News Agency, Liu Zhicheng, a researcher at the Institute of Market and Price Research of the China Academy of Macroeconomics, said that some places have vicious competition in attracting investment, and some places set up obstacles for enterprises to operate or relocate across regions. Unreasonable restrictions are placed on foreign enterprises in terms of qualification recognition, business licensing, administrative approval, and filing.
In addition, there are still significant differences in the business environment of different places, which are reflected in the different access standards in different places, and the differences in market supervision and law enforcement methods, etc., which will also affect the development of enterprises to a certain extent.
The head of the Department of Economic Reform of the National Development and Reform Commission emphasized that the key to breaking local protection and market segmentation is to correctly understand the relationship between the local and the overall situation, so that the "small situation" should be subordinate to the "big picture" and the "big picture", and the "small principle" should be subordinate to the "big picture". Reason", to achieve a nationwide game of chess, unify the big market, and smooth the big cycle.
In this regard, the "Opinions" strive to put forward practical and effective measures.
These include the hard tasks of "four cleanups": to promptly clean up and abolish policies in various regions that impede a unified market and fair competition, including local protection, market segmentation, and designated transactions; We will clean up and abolish regulations and practices that impede equal access and withdrawal in accordance with the law; continue to clean up regulations and practices that violate the unified market construction in the field of bidding and procurement.
At the same time, the "Opinions" also clarified the hard requirements of "some must not".
For example, unless expressly stipulated by laws and regulations, enterprises shall not be required to register in a certain place; no obstacles shall be set up for enterprises to operate or relocate across regions; unreasonable and discriminatory entry and exit conditions shall not be set to restrict goods, services, and factor resources free movement etc.
Liu Zhicheng said that it is necessary to further regulate improper market competition and market intervention, optimize the market environment for fair competition, break down local protection and regional barriers, break unfair market access and exit, and clean up discriminatory practices in government procurement and bidding.
These practices will promote the market mechanism to play a better role, create favorable conditions for enterprises to participate in market competition fairly, and continue to reduce the institutional transaction costs of enterprises' production and operation.
It is worth noting that this "Opinion" also clearly intends to dynamically publish a list of problems that improperly interfere with the construction of a unified national market from the perspective of strengthening negative constraints.
This is also seen as a tough move.
It is understood that the National Development and Reform Commission has carried out basic research in conjunction with various regions and departments, and will launch a list of improper market intervention issues in due course.
In addition, a hard system for reporting, interviewing, and problem rectification for typical cases will be established.
Market supervision departments also undertake important supervision responsibilities in breaking market segmentation and local protection, and smoothing the national circulation.
So far, the State Administration for Market Regulation has cleared up 1.89 million existing policies and measures, and abolished and revised 30,000 documents that hindered the unified market and fair competition across the country.
The person in charge of the Comprehensive Planning Department of the State Administration for Market Regulation said that in the next step, the market supervision department will accelerate the elimination of various regulations and practices that hinder a unified market and fair competition, and further standardize key industries and fields that are strongly reflected by market players and consumers. Inappropriate market competition and market intervention will effectively promote the smooth flow of commodity factor resources on a larger scale, and provide strong support for the accelerated construction of a new development pattern.
Liu Zhibiao, dean of the Yangtze River Industrial Economics Research Institute of Nanjing University, said in an interview with a reporter from China News Agency that by improving the above problems and building a unified, competitive, open, and orderly national unified market, it will help to transform from marketization, rule of law, Accelerate the creation of a stable, fair, transparent and predictable business environment in terms of internationalization and facilitation.
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