The high-quality development of regional economy involves all aspects. I want to talk about the business environment, which is soft and empty, and share four points of view, or four points of thinking.
Further deepen and re understand the significance of optimizing the business environment, and improve consciousness
Elements are the resources that can create social wealth through transaction in the process of human production and circulation. This is like the relationship between capital and capital. The capital that can bring surplus value is called capital. The so-called development is the process of optimizing the allocation of elements to continuously realize value-added benefits. High quality development means reasonable allocation of factors and efficient output, which is a significant improvement of total factor productivity.
For the understanding of elements, I propose a highly abstract "dichotomy": one is immovable elements, and the other is movable elements. The immovable elements are mainly related to the natural physical environment, such as land, location, climate, minerals, ecology, etc. The current trend is more and more clear. In the development of a country and a region, the status and role of the immovable elements are declining, while the corresponding status and role of the movable elements are rising. Mobile elements include labor force, talents, capital, knowledge, technology, management, data, etc.
There is no doubt that the sustainable development of a region depends on the comprehensive enrichment of elements, but more on the optimal allocation of elements. Undoubtedly, immovable elements are indispensable, but they are no longer the decisive factor in regional competition. It is a magic weapon to win in the fierce regional competition to absorb the movable elements as much as possible "for my use".
We always talk about coordinated regional development, which is the overall requirement and long-term orientation. But when it comes to "coordination", there is no denying that regional economic competition is normal. Why do these movable elements come to you without going anywhere else? It depends on whether you can create a first-class market-oriented, legal and international business environment here. A good business environment means that people are willing to invest in you because of the depression of capital and cost; A good business environment also means a high place for talents and career. People are willing to work here. The business environment, which seems to be the most "soft" thing, has finally become the hardest competitive strength in regional development. Now the competition in the domestic and foreign markets is relatively full. Only when "gentlemen seek themselves" and honestly build and optimize their own business environment, can they hope to stand out in the competition of high-quality regional economic development and finally achieve positive results.
To optimize the business environment, "the main aspect of the contradiction" lies in the government and officials
By government, I mean the government in a broad sense, including the Party committee, the government, the National People's Congress, the CPPCC, and even the public institutions to which public management functions extend, or the entire superstructure. In the process of tracking, studying and optimizing the business environment, I found that there are some problems in economic life, such as insufficient development of market players and irregular enterprise behavior. But as the old saying goes, "people follow the king's law and follow the wind", the key lies in "power cannot be willful". What has the greatest impact on our business environment over the years? What things have more prominent impact on the expectations and confidence of private enterprises and private entrepreneurs? I feel that the policy is changeable and the compound fallacy; Listen to the wind and rain, but the only book is not realistic; It is rolled in, "lying flat", one size fits all, sports style; It is formalism, bureaucracy, as well as tedious philosophy and hat brands, which have become a new "public hazard". To optimize the business environment, we really need the government to make more "genuine reform with inward cutting edge".
At present, the key to optimizing the business environment also needs to pay attention to and solve the negative impact of "non economic factors". The quality of the economy is certainly related to economic factors such as economic cycle, industrial structure and operation quality, but now it seems that non economic factors are more prominent and have a greater impact. The policies of the government and the ideology and style of officials seem to be a long way from the economy itself, but in fact they are very closely linked, and the spillover effect is particularly large. Even Lenin said that "politics is the concentrated embodiment of economy", not to mention our economics is "political economics".
The optimization of business environment should also be linked with the progress of industrial and commercial civilization
A large part of the business environment is the hard environment such as infrastructure. After more than 40 years of reform and opening up, the investment and construction in this area has surpassed many developed countries to a certain extent. But I'm afraid there is still a big gap between the system and the humanistic soft environment. Behind the system is the system civilization, and the implementation of the system also depends on the humanistic environment. Why do people always say that "everyone is a business environment"? This is because the business environment is a warm, perceptible and experiential environment integrated with the humanities, not only the infrastructure built on the ground and the rules and regulations hung on the wall.
In some places, the business environment is divided into administration, market, policy, rule of law and other aspects, one of which is the humanistic environment. Theoretically, such abstraction can be done. However, in real life, these three things are organically integrated. Humanism seems invisible and intangible, but in fact it is "omnipresent and omnipotent" and has played an extremely huge and profound role in economic and social development. Therefore, I am always willing to combine the humanistic economy with the private economy, ecological economy and "digital and intellectual economy", which can be described as the "four golden cards" of Zhejiang regional economic development.
Our country has thousands of years of agricultural civilization, and once ranked first in the world in this form. But since the British Industrial Revolution, we have fallen far behind. Despite the efforts of the Westernization Movement, the greatest progress occurred in the short decades after the founding of New China, especially after the reform and opening up.
Whether it is industry, technology or industrial and commercial civilization, we still have a considerable gap. For example, if the "rules, regulations, management and standards" of industrialization are not in place, it is inevitable that there will be some jerry building and shoddy manufacturing. Not to mention the whole set of things like property rights, contracts, integrity, and the rule of law, we still have a long way to go before we understand and do a good job. Our present challenge lies in: industrialization has not yet been in place, and the era of digital intelligence has come; We should not forget to make up for the lesson of industrialization, although we should strive for the number and intellectualization first. The building of cognition and concept cannot be built on the beach.
"Adhere to the principle of equal rights, equal opportunities and equal rules for all types of market subjects in market economic activities"
The key to optimizing the business environment is to promote the realization of the "three equality" of rights, opportunities and rules of all legal subjects in economic activities. This is actually the requirement of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China: "ensure that all kinds of ownership economies use production factors equally according to law, participate in market competition fairly, and receive equal legal protection"; It is also the "decision" adopted at the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee: "adhere to equality of rights, opportunities and rules, abolish unreasonable regulations on various forms of non-public economy, eliminate various hidden barriers, and formulate specific measures for non-public enterprises to enter the franchise field."
To implement the core requirements of "three equality", we must first implement the different market entities between public and non-public sectors. Secondly, the "three equality" should be reflected not only in nominal propaganda, but also in real life. Finally, the "three equality" should cover the "two main bodies" of administration and market in an all-round way. Only the equality between different so-called pure market subjects, without the "equality" that the administrative subjects follow and control at the regulatory level, or the "equality" between the government as a "quasi market subject" in specific transactions and other market subjects based on the contract, the "three equality" requirements may be difficult to be effectively implemented and fully implemented. As for how the "two main bodies" of the administration and the market achieve full coverage of factual equality in "market economic activities", it is necessary to implement the spirit of "the Party must act within the scope of the Constitution and the law (the Constitution)" and "all state organs and armed forces, political parties and social organizations, enterprises and institutions must abide by the Constitution and the law (the Constitution)", That is, all subjects involved in the law in the economic field should consciously practice the basic constitutional law of "equality before the law".
(The author is a senior researcher of China Development Planning Research Institute, Tsinghua University)
