Yang Jijun: Stimulating Endogenous Dynamism and Innovation Vitality Across the Whole Society
The socialist market economy system is a major theoretical and practical innovation of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Since the beginning of Reform and Opening-up, our country has gradually established and improved the socialist market economy system, leading to the continuous development of the market system and the vigorous growth of various types of business entities. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, our country has persisted in comprehensively deepening reform, giving full play to the leading role of economic structural reform, and continuously improving the socialist market economy system to promote the high-quality development of all undertakings through high-quality development of the economy. The "Decision" of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee placed the construction of a high-level socialist market economy system in a prominent position, making deployments for key sectors and critical links in economic structural reform. This will further liberate and develop the social productive forces and stimulate and enhance social vitality.
General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out: "A key factor in the great success of our country's economic development is that we have leveraged both the strengths of the market economy and the superiorities of the socialist system." Building a high-level socialist market economy system and breaking through deep-seated institutional and mechanistic obstacles by further comprehensively deepening reform will help achieve effective incentives for property rights, free flow of factors, flexible price responses, fair and orderly competition, and the survival of the fittest among enterprises. This is of great significance for stimulating the endogenous impetus and innovative vitality of the entire society.
Enhancing social confidence and stabilizing economic expectations. Expectations are the judgments made by enterprises and individuals regarding the future, which influence their arrangements for production and consumption activities. Stabilizing expectations is of great significance for promoting economic development; it relates to the scale of investment and consumption for the entire society and is an important variable affecting economic trends. Building a high-level socialist market economy system involves adhering to and implementing the "two unswervinglys" [1] to ensure that various ownership sectors of the economy use productive factors on an equal footing according to the law, participate in market competition fairly, and receive equal legal protection. It also involves perfecting property rights systems and establishing an efficient integrated management system for intellectual property rights to effectively protect the property rights of various ownership economic organizations according to the law. These measures will solidify the foundation of economic operation, enhance the sense of security regarding property and wealth among the masses, bolster social confidence, and form positive economic expectations, allowing all types of business entities to operate with greater confidence and more vigorous vitality.
Constructing incentive mechanisms for efficient economic operation. In a market economy, the supply and demand mechanism, price mechanism, and competition mechanism incentivize enterprises and individuals to increase efficiency, reduce costs, innovate technology, and improve the quality of products and services to obtain greater market share and profit. Meanwhile, other entities in the market will follow suit. Through such continuous iteration, the quality and efficiency of economic development will steadily improve. Building a high-level socialist market economy system involves perfecting the systems and rules of the factor market to promote the smooth flow of productive factors, efficient allocation of various resources, and the full release of market potential. It involves strengthening the rigid constraints of fair competition reviews and clearing away or abolishing various regulations and practices that hinder a national unified market [2] and fair competition, thereby better maintaining market order and compensating for market failures. This is conducive to constructing incentive mechanisms for efficient economic operation, providing a broad stage for laborers and entrepreneurs across all industries, and allowing enterprises of different ownership types and various business entities to demonstrate their respective strengths.
Shaping new drivers and advantages for development. Industry is the vehicle of productive forces. Only by promoting the deep transformation and upgrading of industry can we accelerate the transition between old and new drivers [3] and promote economic development that achieves reasonable growth in quantity and steady improvement in quality. Building a high-level socialist market economy system involves strengthening the institutional supply for new fields and "new tracks" [4], establishing a growth mechanism for investment in future industries, and leading the optimization and upgrading of traditional industries through the elevation of national standards, thereby promoting the aggregation of various advanced productive factors toward the development of new quality productive forces. It involves accelerating the promotion of new-type industrialization, speeding up the transformation of industrial models and enterprise organizational forms, as well as accelerating the construction of systems and mechanisms to promote the development of the digital economy and perfecting the policy system for promoting digital industrialization and industrial digitalization, thus fostering the deep integration of the physical economy and the digital economy. It involves improving the systems and mechanisms for strengthening key industrial chains, perfecting the coordination mechanism for the orderly gradient transfer of industries within the country, constructing a national strategic hinterland and backups for key industries, and enhancing the resilience and safety levels of industrial and supply chains. This will continuously improve our country's scientific and technological innovation capabilities and industrial competitiveness, promote the optimization of resource allocation efficiency and the maximization of benefits, and shape new drivers and advantages for development.
It must be recognized that, when measured against high-level requirements, our country's socialist market economy system still possesses shortcomings and weaknesses. General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out that the "primary task of deepening economic structural reform is to perfect the systems and mechanisms conducive to promoting high-quality development, shape new drivers and advantages for development, adhere to and implement the 'two unswervinglys,' build a national unified market, and improve the fundamental systems of the market economy." This provides the fundamental guidance for giving play to the leading role of economic structural reform. To implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important speeches and the strategic deployments of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, we must enhance the strategic synergy among various relevant management departments and promote the optimization of the layout and structural adjustment of the state-owned economy. We must formulate a Law on the Promotion of the Private Economy, strengthen the administrative and judicial protection of property rights, and prevent and correct the use of administrative or criminal means to intervene in economic disputes. We must build a national unified market, improve the systems and rules of factor markets, and perfect the circulation system. We must deepen supply-side structural reform, improve the incentive and constraint mechanisms for promoting high-quality development, and proactively align with high-standard international economic and trade rules to build a new system for an open economy of a higher level.