To break local protection and facilitate the smooth flow of economic circulation, China on
April 10th issued guidelines on building a unified national market at a faster pace.
The guidelines will help promote the smooth flow of goods, factors, and resources on a wider
scale for the purpose of building a unified national market that is highly efficient, rules-based,
fair and open.
China is the second largest consumer market in the world. However, the large consumer
market isn’t equal to a truly large-scale market. The new regulation eyes a comprehensive
push for the country’s market to shift from being big toward becoming powerful.
The lack of unified system and rules, impeded flow of factors and resources, market
segmentation, as well as other prominent problems, have hindered the realization of functions
of its market.
In an effort to address these problems, the guidelines clarified the major tasks for building a
unified national market, including promoting efficient circulation and expansion of the
domestic market, fostering a stable, fair, transparent and predictable business environment,
further reducing market transaction costs, boosting scientific and technological innovation
and industrial upgrading, and cultivating a key competitive edge in international competition
and cooperation.
A unified national market is by no means a large market of egalitarianism. Each region in
China has its own resource endowments and different comparative advantages in goods and
factors.
By building a unified national market, China will remove obstacles that hinder the flow of
factors, give full play to the comparative advantages of various regions, and ensure efficient
performance of capital, resources, commodities, services, data, and other market factors.
Besides, the country will be able to achieve optimal resource allocation, maximize the
benefits of the entire economy and society while helping each region make the most of the
market.
The document clearly charted the basic routes for advancing the construction of a unified
national market.
China will further unify the basic systems and rules, including those for property rights
protection, market access, fair competition and social credit, said the guideline. It will strictly
implement the “one negative list for the whole country” management model, treat all market
entities equally, and form a full-coverage credit information network, according to the
document.
To build a unified national market, the country needs to stimulate the flow of factors and
resources so as to vitalize the economy.
Based on previous pilot reforms, the guidelines stressed building unified markets in factors
and resources including land, labor, capital, technology, data, energy, and ecological
environment.
The faster flow of factors and resources is expected to generate a multiplier effect and give
new impetus to economic development.
In a bid to advance the construction of a unified national market, China should provide
higher-quality products and services by constantly improving relevant standards.
Laying high emphasis on the role of goods quality and standard systems in market
construction, the guidelines proposed systematic institutional designs in this respect. The
country will carry out a campaign for upgrading goods quality management system, which is
expected to effectively enhance quality management throughout the whole industrial chain.
The document said that the country will align the quality standards of major consumer goods
in key areas with international standards, and ensure that products sold domestically are
produced on the same production lines, meet the same standards, and are of the same quality
as exported ones, thus effectively facilitating the connection between domestic and
international circulation.
As regards the construction of the standard and measurement system, the guidelines proposed
integrating and simplifying national and industry standards, and pointed the way forward for
the construction of standards in emerging fields.
China needs to supervise the market in a more scientific way in order to ensure the latter
working in a stable and predictable way. The guidelines stressed the necessity to standardize
the market supervision, regulate law enforcement behavior, unify law enforcement standards
and procedures, and reduce discretionary power, which is expected to effectively improve the
efficiency of supervision and promote fair and just law enforcement.
In order to guarantee sound development of new business forms and models, the country
needs to lay emphasis on both regulating supervision and promoting development and close
the loopholes in relevant laws and standards in time while promoting online and offline
integrated supervision, said the document.
By accelerating the construction of a unified national market, creating more market demands,
releasing greater consumption potential, expanding circulation space and forming a more
transparent business environment, the country will stabilize market expectations, promote
sustainable and healthy economic development, and make its economy more vibrant and
dynamic.
