Key Highlights
Optimizing business environment is a key measure to stimulate market vitality and strengthen the endogenous driving force of development, as well as an important task for Liaoning to consolidate foundations and forge ahead in an all-round way during the 15th Five-Year Plan period. The Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China stressed the need to foster a first-class market-oriented, law-based and international business environment, and establish an economic order that enables flexible deregulation and sound regulation.
This year, the Government Work Report of Liaoning Province clearly stated that optimizing the business environment shall be taken as the most important, practical and urgent strategic task. There is no end to improving the business environment—only constant betterment. We shall further deepen comprehensive reform grounded on business environment optimization, energize all types of market entities, and foster a stable, fair, transparent and predictable development environment for the all-round revitalization of Liaoning.
Deeply Understand That Business Environment Optimization Is a Strategic Move for Liaoning’s All-Round Revitalization
Optimizing the business environment is an essential requirement for Liaoning to break through institutional and mechanistic shackles and activate endogenous drivers. We must place business environment optimization in a prominent position, resolutely rectify the official-centric mentality, and abolish the bad practice of relying on relations to get things done. With the spirit of revolutionary self reform and more forceful and effective concrete measures, we shall truly eliminate deep rooted maladies that constrain the improvement of the business environment, thereby laying a solid institutional foundation for economic development.
Optimizing the business environment is a key measure to reshape regional competitiveness and enhance talent attraction. As General Secretary Xi Jinping has stressed, the business environment is the soil for enterprises to survive and thrive. In recent years, Liaoning has faced multiple practical challenges, making it imperative to build a stable, fair, transparent and predictable business environment and create a reputation effect. This year, Liaoning has set the goal of striving to become a province with the best reputed business environment. This is precisely to elevate business environment building to a new height that leads the overall revitalization and development, completely reverse traditional perceptions, continuously attract talent clusters, and reshape advantages and seize the initiative in the new development paradigm and increasingly fierce regional competition.
Optimizing the business environment is a strategic underpinning for Liaoning to serve national strategies and achieve new breakthroughs in its all round revitalization. Liaoning shoulders the political mission of safeguarding the country’s five major security interests and is entrusted with the important task of forging ahead to achieve new breakthroughs in the all round revitalization of Northeast China in the new era, and strive to write a Liaoning chapter of Chinese style modernization. Fulfilling these missions and tasks requires not only promoting industrial transformation and upgrading through scientific and technological innovation and ensuring the stability of industrial and supply chains, but also fostering a first class business environment, fully energizing all types of market entities, promoting Liaoning’s in depth integration into the development of a unified national market and its proactive alignment with high standard international economic and trade rules, so as to provide soft power support and institutional guarantees for Liaoning’s high quality development.
Correctly Understand the Important Orientation of Comprehensively Deepening Reform Based on Business Environment Optimization
Carry out in-depth activities to optimize the business environment and better integrate an efficient market with a proactive government. The proposals for the 15th Five-Year Plan put forward adhering to the combination of an efficient market and a proactive government, providing scientific guidance for properly handling the relationship between the government and the market. Optimizing the business environment is a long-term and systematic project. It is necessary to focus on prominent problems and weak links, establish and improve a full-chain closed-loop management mechanism of “discovery—verification—rectification—feedback” for business environment problems, ensure that every problem is followed up to the end and rectified in place, and effectively enhance regulatory authority. Integrity is the foundation of optimizing the business environment. It is essential to carry out special campaigns on government performance of commitments, resolutely rectify the problems of government dishonesty and unfulfilled commitments, focus on improving the long-term mechanism of government integrity, and strengthen the development of the social credit system. It is vital to further advance the development of a digital government, take “efficiently handling government affairs in one integrated process” as a key starting point, and steadily promote the transformation and upgrading of government services toward full-chain collaboration, integrated processing and high-quality service.
Adhere to the “Two Unwavering Commitments” and stimulate the vitality of all types of market entities. The proposals for the 15th Five-Year Plan clearly state that we must uphold and implement the “Two Unwavering Commitments” and promote complementary advantages and common development of economies under all forms of ownership. We shall unswervingly consolidate and develop the public sector of the economy. Liaoning should further expand the investment and layout of state-owned capital in strategic emerging industries, improve the management of core businesses, and channel state-owned capital into key strategic emerging industries including artificial intelligence, new energy and aerospace. We shall unswervingly encourage, support and guide the development of the non-public sector of the economy. The private economy is an indispensable and important force for the all-round revitalization of Liaoning. We shall protect the property rights of private enterprises and the legitimate rights and interests of entrepreneurs in accordance with the law, place the development of the private economy in a more prominent position, attach great importance to the growth of the private economy and care for private entrepreneurs. By optimizing services and smoothing institutional mechanisms, we will foster a sound environment featuring fair competition and dynamic development for the private economy.
Coordinate and advance reforms in key areas, and remove deep-seated institutional barriers through market-oriented allocation of production factors. The Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China pointed out that it is necessary to fully stimulate the vitality of all types of market entities, accelerate the improvement of institutional mechanisms for market-oriented allocation of production factors, and enhance the efficiency of macroeconomic governance. To optimize the business environment, we shall fully implement laws and policies for building a unified national market, break local protectionism and market segmentation, and promote the unimpeded flow and efficient allocation of commodities and production factors across a wider scope. We will advance the integration and optimization of various development zones, grant greater discretionary autonomy to development zones in market access, factor allocation and project advancement through intensified reform of power decentralization and empowerment, and provide efficient supporting facilities and high-quality services for industrial development. We will optimize the supply and management model of land factors, increase the transfer of “standard land”, raise the level of economical and intensive land use, and promote the transformation of land factor guarantee from “projects waiting for land” to “land ready for projects”. We will further deepen the reform of zero-based budgeting to break the rigid pattern of fiscal expenditure. Carrying out zero-based budget reform rooted in national strategic needs, we will strengthen the effective connection between expenditure items and annual key government tasks, and improve the allocation efficiency of fiscal resources.
Accurately Grasp the Practical Path for Liaoning to Build a Provincial Benchmark with the Best Reputation in Business Environment
Create an open and transparent market environment. Fully implement the negative list system for market access, resolutely break down all kinds of invisible barriers in industry access, qualification licensing, business operation and other aspects, and ensure that all types of market entities, including state-owned enterprises, private enterprises and foreign-funded enterprises, can legally and fairly access and use key factor resources such as capital, technology, land, data and talent. Deepen the reform of separating government functions from enterprise management and separating government assets from capital management, legally guarantee the independent operation rights of state-owned enterprises, and encourage state-owned capital to focus on its main responsibilities and businesses to become stronger and better in high-end equipment, new materials, new energy and other fields. Improve the mechanism for private enterprises to participate in the development of major projects on a regular basis, and support them to actively invest in new infrastructure, new urbanization and major projects, as well as in the upgrading of key industrial chains. Strengthen the opening and supply of application scenarios, rely on innovation platforms such as Shenyang Hunnan Science and Technology City and Dalian Yinggeshi Science City, build demonstration scenarios around intelligent manufacturing, smart cities, digital government and other fields, attract high-quality enterprises through “scenario-based investment promotion”, and provide a more dynamic industrial development ecosystem and a superior institutional environment for all types of business entities to develop in Liaoning.
Foster a fair and impartial legal environment. General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed that it is necessary to legally protect the property rights and legitimate rights and interests of all types of market entities, with consistent policies and equal treatment. To build a stable, fair, transparent and predictable legal environment, we should effectively strengthen the legal protection of the legitimate rights and interests of all types of business entities and entrepreneurs. Strictly implement the case filing norms and jurisdiction provisions for enterprise-related cases, resolutely prevent and correct the interference in economic disputes by administrative or criminal means, and legally investigate and punish all kinds of illegal acts that disrupt market order. Strive to improve a working system covering the entire chain of intellectual property creation, application, protection, management and services, focus on strengthening the protection of key core technologies and original achievements of small and medium-sized enterprises, improve the mechanism linking administrative law enforcement with judicial practice, and effectively safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of innovators. Continue to deepen the special rectification of prominent problems in law enforcement involving enterprises, focus on rectifying arbitrary inspections, repeated penalties, illegal seizure and detention, and establish a long-term governance mechanism. Rely on the unified provincial platform for administrative law enforcement and supervision, promote cross-departmental joint inspections and the sharing and mutual recognition of inspection results, minimize interference in the normal business activities of entities, and improve the standardization of law enforcement and enterprise satisfaction.
Develop a high-quality and comprehensive factor environment. In terms of land resource utilization, focus on supporting enterprises to revitalize inefficient industrial land and idle workshops through mergers, reorganizations and transformation and upgrading based on actual conditions. On the premise of conforming to territorial spatial planning and industrial policy orientation, steadily promote the transformation of industrial land into new forms of business such as scientific and technological research and development and producer services, so as to improve the intensity and output efficiency of land use. In terms of talent introduction and cultivation, encourage enterprises to adopt the “open bidding for key technology breakthroughs” approach to tackle key technical problems, expand talent introduction channels through professional human resource service agencies, and build a sound mechanism of “attracting talents through projects, gathering talents through platforms, and retaining talents through services”. In terms of financial service support, improve the cultivation mechanism for first-time loan applicants and the incentive mechanism for credit loans, and strengthen bank-enterprise docking relying on the provincial financing credit service platform. Improve the rapid response mechanism for supporting small and micro enterprises in difficulty, promote the accurate implementation of policies such as no-principal renewal loans and revolving credit, and continuously expand the credit coverage for small and micro business entities.
Build an efficient and convenient government service environment. To effectively enhance the efficiency of the business environment, we should strive to strengthen policy supply and implementation capacity, promote integrated whole-chain services for enterprise-related policies from release and application to fund allocation, clarify the time limit for each procedure, and effectively remove the “last mile” obstacles in policy implementation. Establish a regular working mechanism for entrepreneurs to participate in the formulation of enterprise-related policies, conduct regular evaluations of policy coordination, and ensure that all preferential measures for enterprises are interconnected, stable and highly predictable. In terms of government services, fully implement the list-based management of administrative licensing items, form a three-level (provincial, municipal and county) unified, clearly defined and dynamically adjusted management system for licensing items, and continuously improve the standardization and convenience of government services. In response to the prominent problem of payment arrears reflected by enterprises, establish a special governance mechanism, consolidate the main responsibility for debt settlement, strengthen judicial coordination and credit punishment, and publicly expose malicious arrears and include them in credit dishonesty records in accordance with the law.
