Leveraging advantages of the Chinese market

An employee readies packages ordered on e-commerce platforms at a logistics center in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province, in December. [Photo by Wang Chun/for China Daily]

To form a unified domestic market will be of vital importance to the construction of a high-standard market system and high-level socialist market economic system.

Over the past 40 years, the central authorities have granted greater autonomy to local governments in promoting economic growth, and they compete to attract investment with preferential tax policies, cheap land prices and low environmental requirements.

Which results in divided market regulation rules, standards and procedures, making the economy more dependent on the low-cost advantage of production factors, and also making it more difficult for economic elements to flow freely throughout the country.

If the economic factors, elements and resources can flow freely, the operating costs of the Chinese economy will be greatly reduced, and its operating efficiency markedly enhanced, which will give a full play to the Chinese market's scale effect and agglomeration effect in attracting international enterprises and investment.

The construction of a unified national market will prompt enterprises to shift from cost competition to innovation competition. Local governments will have to form a unified intellectual property protection system, which will promote the free flow of innovation factors.

The establishment of an open and unified domestic market based on the rule of law will mean that enterprises compete in a standardized and fair market environment.

This will not only help Chinese companies compete internationally, but also enable them to better abide by international rules, connect the domestic and international markets, and facilitate the free, orderly, safe and convenient cross-border flow of production factors.

The construction of a unified domestic market puts forward higher requirements for government and enterprises. Local governments will not be able to intervene in market activities at random in an unreasonable way, and will have to give full play to the market in the allocation of resources. They will also have to take the initiative to promote fair competition and marketization, protect the rule of law, and make continual efforts to improve local business environment to level out the foundation for a unified domestic market.