China’s Office of the State Council and the Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued an action plan to establish a higher-standard market on January 31, pledging to further strengthen the market’s decisive role in resource distribution.
The plan contains 51 measures covering five areas, including basic institutions, factor markets, business environment and quality and market openness and supervision.
The focus is reform of markets to enable factors of production to circulate more freely and prevent barriers to circulation of goods and services. The plan proposes promoting easier landuse rezoning and transfer and allowing rural collective land to be rezoned for business uses.
The plan highlights labor circulation. It proposes cross-regional acknowledgment of residence registration in neighboring cities whose population is less than five million. It allows trial registration by place of permanent residence rather than by place of birth.
To cater to the new information era, the plan pledges to set up systems to encourage transfer of scientific achievements and a responsibility list to promote data sharing between different regions and departments.
The importance of a healthy capital market is highlighted, as well as a pledge to improve the systems for listing registration and exit and to increase protection for investors.
The plan emphasizes improving market environment and quality. Government departments must improve management of product quality and greatly reduce the cost for consumers in protecting their interests and rights.
There must be continuity and deepness of the country’s opening up. Negative list systems will be improved, with expanded access to services markets. The plan requires adopting unified standards among domestic and foreign enterprises and among State-owned and private enterprises to ensure equal and fair competition.
As for supervision, the plan will improve laws and judicial institutions, especially those which protect intellectual property and allow more social supervision.
Experts said the plan is evidence of China’s intent to further open its market, which will in turn benefit the “dual-circulation” development pattern that facilitates the growth of both the domestic and the international markets.
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