By Zhang Junkuo, DRC

2018-12-11

The key to high-quality development depends on institutional mechanisms. Since 2018, China’s economy has remained generally stable with both progress made and worrying factors. Looking ahead to the domestic and international environment in the next year and the years to come, we have a situation of increasing downward pressure, more uncertainties, and more complex risks and challenges. Faced with this situation, for us, the most crucial thing is to stay firm and do our own work well. That is to say, we need to unswervingly deepen reform, expand openness, strive to improve the institutional and policy environment conducive to promoting high-quality development, constantly cultivate new momentum for development, and vigorously tap and fully release the traditional driving force for development. Under the new situation, to promote high-quality development through deepening reform and opening up, we need to focus on the following four aspects. First, we need to focus on building a market environment of high quality, good price and survival of the fittest. Second, efforts should be made to improve the social environment conducive to the optimal allocation of resources and the optimization and upgrading of the economic structure. The key is to further clarify the functions of the government and reduce its direct interference in economic activities, especially in industrial upgrading, as well as in enterprise reorganization and survival of the fittest. Third, we need to further improve the institutional environment for promoting innovation and development. Fourth, efforts should be made to fully release China’s development potential by reforming and improving the institutional environment. In addition, promoting fairness and green sustainability of development is also an important content and requirement of high-quality development, fundamentally depending on the creation of an institutional environment by reform.

Accelerating reform requires more effective ways to push it forward. The reform has made remarkable progress in many areas, such as deepening the reform of “decentralization, management and services” and focusing on improving the business environment; improving the ecological environment management system and strengthening the enforcement of environmental protection law, etc. But in general, there is a prominent problem in deepening reform in the new period, that is, the implementation of reform measures is not strong enough, and the effect is not satisfactory. In response to this situation, at the 4th meeting of the Central Committee on Comprehensive Deepening Reform, held in September 2018, President Xi Jinping specifically stressed that the reform should focus on implementation, the most difficult part of the reform, and that more efforts should be devoted to implementation. We need to focus our reform on solving practical problems.

To optimize the ways and methods of reform, we need to deal with the following three relationships. First, we need to deal with the relationship between comprehensive reform and key breakthroughs. It is undoubtedly correct that the Third Plenary Session of the Eighteenth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China proposed to deepen the reform in an all-round way. By filling in the shortcomings, the overall effectiveness of the system can be enhanced. Second, we need to deal with the relationship between top-level design and grass-roots exploration. Up to the present stage of reform, top-level design is very necessary and important. At the same time, we need to give full play to the initiative of grass-roots enterprises and the masses. Third, we need to deal with the relationship between the reform in accordance with the law and bold experiments and piloting. President Xi Jinping pointed out that all major reforms should be based on law, which is a high reflection of the spirit of rule of law in the field of reform.