Improving market access system and optimizing market environment

Editor's note: Yi Shaohua is an academic of economic strategy at the China Academy of Social Sciences. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN. It has been translated from Chinese and edited for brevity and clarity.

To further implement the reform plans put forward at the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council, China's Cabinet, recently issued the Opinions on Improving the Market Access System. This document fully embodies the necessity of comprehensively deepening reform and building a high-level socialist market economy system. It represents a significant move toward better integration of an efficient market, assisting an already well-functioning government to create a fairer and more dynamic market environment.

Improving the market access system primarily revolves around removing barriers to market access and establishing an open, transparent, well-regulated, and orderly market access system with fair competition, clear rights and responsibilities, and effective supervision. It aims to stimulate society's internal driving forces and market vitality, with a specific emphasis on improving the market system and leveraging market mechanisms.

In terms of improving the market system, we must cultivate a large number of vibrant producers and suppliers of goods, as well as rational consumers. From the perspective of suppliers, it is essential to speed up the development of dynamic market entities capable of independent operation and assuming sole responsibility for their profits or losses. On the one hand, we must unswervingly consolidate and develop the public sector while equally encouraging, supporting, and guiding the growth of the non-public sector. On the other hand, the entry barriers for enterprises should be lowered and unnecessary approvals should be eliminated to relieve enterprises from restrictions, guiding and encouraging the public to engage proactively in entrepreneurship. From the point of view of consumers, efforts should focus on continuously raising consumers' income levels to enable more people to consume, while simultaneously innovating products to stimulate new consumer demand.  

As for leveraging market mechanisms, a reasonable pricing mechanism for related economic factors should be established as the foundation. The focus should be on deepening market-oriented reform of such factors, further optimizing fundamental institutions of the market economy such as property rights protection, market access, fair competition, and social credit. It is imperative to ensure fair competition through uniform rules and institutions and regulate economic activities based on unified market rules. 

To this end, three key actions are proposed. 

First, the power list and negative list systems must be improved. All types of business entities should be allowed to enter areas outside the lists legally and equally, and procedures for adjusting the management measures for market access must be clarified to create a fairer and more orderly competitive environment. This approach is conducive to enhancing the efficiency of resource allocation. 

Second, the market entry mechanism must be refined to strengthen the coordination and linkage between domestic and foreign investment access policies and ease access restrictions in the service sector in an orderly manner. Especially in strategic emerging industries and other key fields, we should launch market access pilots in a broader area, better invigorating various business entities and injecting new momentum into the market. 

Third, new quality productive forces should be leveraged to propel development in emerging industries and new fields. Through technological breakthroughs, industrial upgrading, and efficiency improvements, we should make innovative efforts to promote industrial digitalization and upgrading to enhance production efficiency, optimize supply quality, and increase market allocation efficiency. On the consumption end, the technological revolution and industrial transformation brought about by the development of new quality productive forces will significantly drive the innovation of consumption patterns and deeply tap into domestic demand potential so as to upgrade and expand consumption and better meet people's ever-growing needs for a better life.

Committed to the overarching goal of comprehensively deepening reform, we must take multifaceted approaches and make concerted efforts. Improving the market access system will undoubtedly lead to steady enhancements in market efficiency and continued optimization of the market environment. With improved quality and upgrading of the market structure, we can better drive high-quality economic development and empower the advancement of Chinese modernization.