The Chinese central government has issued a new policy document on the accelerated integration of the country’s regional economies and markets.
On 10 April state-owned media reported that the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Central Committee and the State Council had jointly issued the “Opinions on Accelerating the Establishment of a Great National Unified Market” (中共中央 国务院关于加快建设全国统一大市场的意见) on 25 March.
The Opinions call for “accelerating the establishment of nationwide unified market systems and regulations; breaking through regional protectionism and segregated markets; clearing out key blockages that restrain economic circulation; expediting the internal circulation of commercial goods, factors of production and resources on an even greater scale, and accelerating the establishment of a great national unified market that is fully open and has fair competition.”
Key goals of the Opinions include:
- Continually driving the high-efficiency connection and scale expansion of domestic markets.
- Accelerating the operation of a commercial environment which is stable, fair, transparent and predictable.
- Further reducing market transaction costs.
- Expediting tech innovation and industrial upgrades.
- Cultivating new advantages for the participation in international cooperation and competition.
With regard to the “unification of market infrastructure, systems and regulations,” the Opinions call for:
- Improving the unified property rights protection system.
- Implementing a unified market entry system.
- Upholding a unified fair competition system.
- Improving the unified social credit system.
The Opinions also call for “creating a unified market for factors of production and resources,” with key measures to encompass:
- Improving a unified urban-rural market for land and labour.
- Accelerating the development of unified capital markets.
- Accelerating the cultivation of a unified market for technology and data.
- Establishing a unified national energy market.
- Cultivating and developing a unified national ecosystem and environment market.
