Phoenix TV:

What progress has been made in building a unified national market? How does this initiative contribute to facilitating high-quality development? What additional measures will the NDRC take to advance this initiative further? Thank you.

Zhao Chenxin:

I'll give the floor to Mr. Xiao to address these questions.

Xiao Weiming:

Thank you for your questions. Building a unified national market is a crucial aspect of developing a high-standard socialist market economy. This initiative is closely related to people's lives, therefore drawing significant public attention. Mr. Zhao has already addressed some aspects of this initiative just now. In recent years, the NDRC has collaborated with related state organs and local governments in accordance with the decisions and plans of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, particularly the requirements outlined in the guideline of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council to accelerate the establishment of a unified domestic market. Following the general principle of establishing the new before abolishing the old, the NDRC has implemented a unified approach encompassing planning, execution and oversight measures. As a result, there has been a significant increase in consensus across all sectors of society, and the initiative's effect is gradually taking shape, with specific progress seen in the following two aspects.

First, by "establishing the new," we aim to improve basic institutional arrangements concerning property rights protection, market access, fair competition and social credit. For example, new regulations for fair competition reviews have officially taken effect today, Aug. 1, representing a significant enhancement to our foundational legal framework. In addition, the number of restrictions in the country's negative list for market access has been cut from 151 in 2018 to 117, with further reductions expected. Moreover, China has also expedited the construction of high-quality integrated multidimensional transportation networks. Currently, China ranks first globally in terms of both the length of high-speed railways in service and the length of completed expressways. China has also completed the construction of the world's largest fiber-optic and mobile broadband network. All these infrastructure projects have contributed to a continuous decline in the ratio of social logistics costs to GDP, which reached 14.2% in the first half of this year, a year-on-year decrease of 0.3 percentage point. China has also completed unified registration of immovable property, with data-related basic institutional arrangements improving continuously. The national 12315 consumer dispute resolution public platform has come into operation, taking the capacity of a unified goods and services market to a higher level. Additionally, list-based management measures have been implemented for administrative penalties and enforcement actions related to market oversight.

Second, by "abolishing the old," we aim to remove obstacles that hinder the development of a unified national market through substantial efforts. We have established a system for rectifying problems, admonishing those responsible, and issuing notice of criticism to typical cases related to improper interventions with the construction of a unified national market. We work to identify and resolve problems, particularly with a focus on local protectionism and market segmentation, which are major concerns for market entities. Through rigorous investigation and corrective action, we have rectified a number of prominent problems in sectors such as government procurement, new energy vehicles, energy resources and pumped storage. Both businesses and the people have tangibly benefited from these initiatives. Furthermore, we have promoted some local practices in standardizing provincial tender documents and introducing negative lists for compiling these documents.

Looking ahead, we will resolutely follow the resolution adopted at the third plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, collaborate with pertinent bodies to consolidate these achievements, accelerate the enhancement of fundamental systems that are vital for fostering a unified national market, and advance the construction of unified markets in pivotal areas such as transportation, commercial logistics and energy market. We will continue to rectify prominent problems in key areas and vigorously eliminate local protectionism as well as market segmentation. Our new progress made in establishing a unified national market will significantly boost the development of a high-level socialist market economy.

That's all from me. Thank you.