National unified market set to power economy
China’s determination to build a national unified market does not mean closing its doors to the outside world, but instead emphasizes expanding high-level opening-up and boosting its appeal to global investors, industry experts and analysts say.
The establishment of a national unified market will inject strong impetus into the economy, remove market entry barriers for domestic and foreign companies, build a high-standard market system and strengthen internal and international circulation in the country’s economic development, they said.
As China faces shrinking demand, supply shocks and weakening expectations, the experts said, building a highly efficient, rules-based, fair and open market will help stabilize market expectations, stimulate the vitality of all those involved and foster a marketoriented, law-based and internationalized business environment.
Guo Liyan, director of the comprehensive situation research office of the Chinese Academy of Macroeconomic Research, said building a national unified market will help China build the “dual-circulation” economic development pattern, which has the domestic market as the mainstay, even as domestic and international markets complement each other.
“By building a national unified market, China will be able to further energize both the domestic and international markets,” Guo said.
“China will also keep its doors open to the outside world, and welcomes global investors to jointly build the unified market and share the gains from that.”
On April 10 the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council jointly published a paper on accelerating the establishment of a national unified market, aimed at ending protectionism and unifying the fragmented market to remove key hurdles to economic growth.
The paper calls for promoting efficient domestic circulation, fostering a stable, fair, transparent and predictable business environment, reducing transaction costs, increasing scientific and technological innovation and industrial upgrading, and cultivating a key competitive edge in international competition and collaboration.
The establishment of a strong and unified national market will help expand opening-up, respond to the concerns of foreign companies, stabilize foreign trade and investment, and create a market-oriented, well-regulated and international business environment, Guo said.
The document says China will promptly review and abolish policies hindering the formation of a unified market and fair competition, such as local protectionism and market segmentation, and it will comprehensively review preferential policies that discriminate against foreigninvested or nonlocal companies.
The National Development and Reform Commission, China’s top economic regulator, said in a recent statement that China aims to build a unified and fully open market, offering a better environment and larger development space for domestic and foreign businesses alike.
Bai Ming, deputy director of the international market research department at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, said China is committed to promoting fair competition, improving efficiency and promoting optimal allocation of resources by building a unified and fully open market.
China has continuously revised the negative list for foreign investment market access over the past few years, demonstrating the country’s determination to open up its market to the outside world, Bai said.
“China will also keep its doors open to the outside world, and welcomes global investors to jointly build the unified market and share the gains from that.”
GUO LIYAN