Building New Advantages in the Business Environment to Support New Momentum for High-Quality Development

High-quality development is rooted in the vitality of market entities, and a good business environment is conducive to better unleashing that vitality. The Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC [1]1 The Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC was held in July 2024, focusing on comprehensively deepening reform and advancing Chinese modernization. emphasized the need to create a market-oriented, law-based, and internationalized first-class business environment, forming an economic order that is both "able to delegate" and "able to manage well." General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that "the business environment can only be better, never the best," profoundly revealing that business environment construction is a systemic project that is never completed. In recent years, China has taken deepening the reform of "delegating power, improving regulation, and upgrading services" [2]2 "Delegating power, improving regulation, and upgrading services" (放管服) is a shorthand for the reform of streamlining administration, delegating power, strengthening regulation, and improving government services. as its starting point, improving property rights protection, optimizing government services, and enhancing regulatory efficiency, achieving a significant leap in its global business environment ranking. Currently, a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation is advancing in depth, global industrial and supply chains are undergoing accelerated restructuring, and the world economic landscape is facing profound adjustments. Facing new strategic opportunities, it is urgent to build new advantages in the business environment, thereby forming new momentum to support high-quality development.

高质量发展植根于市场主体活力，而好的营商环境有利于更好释放市场主体活力。党的二十届四中全会强调，打造市场化法治化国际化一流营商环境，形成既“放得活”又“管得好”的经济秩序。习近平总书记指出，“营商环境只有更好，没有最好”，深刻揭示了营商环境建设是一项永不竣工的系统工程。近年来，我国以深化“放管服”改革为抓手，完善产权保护、优化政务服务、提升监管效能，实现了营商环境全球排名的显著跃升。当前，新一轮科技革命和产业变革纵深推进，全球产业链供应链加速重构，世界经济格局面临深刻调整。面对新的战略机遇，亟须构筑营商环境新优势，以此形成支撑高质量发展的新动能。

Fostering New Quality Productive Forces with an Innovation-Friendly Ecosystem

以创新友好型生态催生新质生产力

As the core driving force leading high-quality development, new quality productive forces have knowledge, technology, data, and talent as their core elements, characterized by intangibility, network effects, high mobility, and positive externalities. The gestation and growth of new quality productive forces are inseparable from a good business environment. Building new advantages in the business environment essentially means constructing an innovation-friendly ecosystem adapted to new quality productive forces, a system that meets the special requirements of innovation activities for the institutional environment.

新质生产力作为引领高质量发展的核心动力，其核心要素是知识、技术、数据和人才，具有无形性、网络效应、高流动性和正外部性等特征。新质生产力的孕育与壮大，离不开好的营商环境。构筑营商环境新优势，本质上就是为适应新质生产力而构建的创新友好型生态系统，这一系统满足创新活动对制度环境的特殊要求。

Consolidate the foundation of innovation and strengthen the full-chain protection of intellectual property rights. During the "15th Five-Year Plan" period [3]3 The "15th Five-Year Plan" refers to China's national economic and social development plan for the period 2026–2030., the intellectual property protection system needs to be upgraded to be more efficient, smarter, and more collaborative. On one hand, leverage the efficiency advantages of administrative protection, improve the protection network covering the whole country, achieve rapid examination, rights confirmation, and rights protection for patents and trademarks, and significantly reduce the institutional transaction costs for innovation entities. On the other hand, promote the diversification of protection means and actively develop alternative dispute resolution mechanisms such as arbitration and mediation. Additionally, it is necessary to proactively address the challenges of the digital era, strengthen research on protection rules for new types of innovation achievements such as big data and artificial intelligence, and balance the relationship between incentivizing innovation and promoting knowledge diffusion.

筑牢创新基石，强化知识产权全链条保护。“十五五”时期，知识产权保护体系需向更高效、更智能、更协同升级。一方面，发挥行政保护效率优势，健全覆盖全国的保护网络，实现专利、商标的快速审查、确权与维权，显著降低创新主体的制度性交易成本。另一方面，推动保护手段多元化，积极发展仲裁、调解等替代性纠纷解决机制。另外，须前瞻性应对数字时代的挑战，加强对大数据、人工智能等新型创新成果的保护规则研究，平衡激励创新与促进知识扩散的关系。

Stimulate endogenous momentum and cultivate an inclusive and prudent innovation culture. In frontier fields such as artificial intelligence and biomedicine, scientifically set up "safe spaces," allowing enterprises to conduct small-scale testing and verification within the regulatory framework, reducing the cost of innovation trial and error. At the same time, smooth the virtuous cycle of "technology-industry-finance," develop multi-level capital markets, improve the venture capital mechanism, guide capital towards promising startups, and inject financial vitality into innovation. In particular, it is necessary to develop financial innovations such as pledge financing and securitization for intellectual property rights, solving the problems of valuing and circulating intangible assets.

激发内生动力，培育包容审慎的创新文化。在人工智能、生物医药等前沿领域，科学设置“安全空间”，允许企业在监管框架内进行小范围测试验证，降低创新试错成本。与此同时，畅通“科技—产业—金融”的良性循环，发展多层次资本市场，完善风险投资机制，引导资本投向具有潜力的初创企业，为创新注入金融活水。特别需要发展针对知识产权的质押融资、证券化等金融创新，解决无形资产估值难、流转难的问题。

Smooth the channels for factor circulation and build safe and efficient new-type data infrastructure. In the era of the digital economy, data is a key factor of production, possessing unique attributes such as non-rivalry, replicability, and positive externalities. The basic data system should be accelerated and improved, clarifying rules on data property rights, circulation and trading, income distribution, and security governance. Under the premise of ensuring national security and personal privacy, promote the orderly opening and authorized use of public data and enterprise data by classification and grading, maximizing the social value of data. Standardize the development of the data trading market, explore new business forms such as data brokers and data trusts, and promote the compliant and efficient flow and value release of data elements. In particular, it is necessary to establish a mechanism for evaluating the contribution of data elements and distributing income, safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of data producers and processors.

畅通要素流通渠道，构建安全高效的新型数据基础设施。在数字经济时代，数据是关键生产要素，具有非竞争性、可复制性、正外部性等独特属性。应加快完善数据基础制度体系，厘清数据产权、流通交易、收益分配与安全治理规则。在确保国家安全与个人隐私的前提下，分级分类推动公共数据、企业数据有序开放与授权使用，实现数据社会价值的最大化。规范发展数据交易市场，探索数据经纪人、数据信托等新业态，促进数据要素合规高效流动与价值释放。特别是要建立数据要素的贡献度评估和收益分配机制，保障数据生产者和处理者的合法权益。

Aligning with the Global Economy through Institutional Opening Up

以制度型开放对接全球经济

As the global economic and trade landscape undergoes profound adjustments, institutional opening up has become an inevitable choice. Creating a market-oriented, law-based, and internationalized first-class business environment and building new advantages in the business environment are important fulcrums for promoting institutional opening up.

随着全球经贸格局深刻调整，制度型开放成为必然选择。打造市场化法治化国际化一流营商环境，构筑营商环境新优势，是推动制度型开放的重要支点。

Consolidate the foundation of opening up and deepen the management system of pre-establishment national treatment plus a negative list. Formulate negative lists for the national version and the pilot free trade zone version, especially promoting higher-level opening up in service sectors such as finance, education, and healthcare. Explore risk-based differentiated list management, apply scientific regulatory methods, clarify the specific management requirements and procedures for restrictive measures, and reduce compliance costs for enterprises. At the same time, closely link negative list management with the ex-post and interim regulatory system, including foreign investment security reviews, anti-monopoly reviews, and industry supervision, coordinate opening up and security, establish and improve risk identification and prevention and control mechanisms, and effectively safeguard national security and development interests.

夯实开放根基，深化准入前国民待遇加负面清单管理制度。制定全国版和自贸试验区版负面清单，尤其是在金融、教育、医疗等服务业领域推进更高水平开放。探索基于风险的差异化清单管理，运用科学监管方法，明确限制措施的具体管理要求与流程，降低企业的合规成本。同时，将负面清单管理与外商投资安全审查、反垄断审查、行业监管等事中事后监管体系紧密衔接，统筹开放与安全，建立完善的风险识别和防控机制，有效维护国家安全和发展利益。

Stabilize market expectations and enhance the transparency and continuity of regulations and policies. Improve the comprehensive coordination and pre-assessment mechanism for enterprise-related policies, introduce cost-benefit analysis and impact assessment tools, and enhance the scientific and forward-looking nature of policy formulation. Establish normalized and diversified communication channels between the government and market entities, set up mechanisms such as "business environment observers," promptly respond to the reasonable demands of enterprises, and form a good interactive relationship between government and business. In particular, it is necessary to strengthen policy stability, avoid frequent policy changes, establish transition periods and buffer mechanisms for policy adjustments, and protect the reliance interests of market entities.

稳定市场预期，增强法规政策的透明度与连续性。健全涉企政策综合协调与事前评估机制，引入成本效益分析和影响评估工具，提升政策制定的科学性和前瞻性。建立政府与市场主体的常态化、多元化沟通渠道，设立“营商环境观察员”等机制，及时响应企业合理诉求，形成良好的政商互动关系。特别是要加强政策稳定性，避免朝令夕改，建立政策调整的过渡期和缓冲机制，保护市场主体的信赖利益。

Expand the space for opening up, actively align with and lead international high-standard rules. Taking the accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA) as an opportunity, conduct stress tests on a larger scale and at a deeper level during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period. In the field of competition, fully implement the principle of competitive neutrality, based on the theory of fair competition, ensure equal competition for all types of enterprises, and prevent selective enforcement and hidden barriers. In the field of digital trade, explore diversified solutions such as security assessment and certification for cross-border data flow, balancing data flow and data security. In the field of sustainable development, deeply integrate environmental, social, and governance concepts into business environment construction, internalize environmental costs through institutional design, and make green and low-carbon development a new advantage for attracting high-quality foreign investment. Through pioneering trials in frontier fields, transform China's practical advantages in areas such as the digital economy and green industries into rule advantages, contributing Chinese solutions to global governance.

拓展开放空间，主动对标与引领国际高标准规则。以加入《全面与进步跨太平洋伙伴关系协定》（CPTPP）和《数字经济伙伴关系协定》（DEPA）为契机，在“十五五”时期开展更大范围、更深层次的压力测试。在竞争领域，全面落实竞争中性原则，基于公平竞争理论，保障各类企业平等竞争，防止选择性执法和隐性壁垒。在数字贸易领域，探索数据跨境流动的安全评估、认证等多元化解决方案，平衡数据流动与数据安全。在可持续发展领域，将环境、社会和治理理念深度融入营商环境建设，通过制度设计将环境成本内部化，使绿色低碳发展成为吸引高质量外资的新优势。通过前沿领域的先行先试，将我国在数字经济、绿色产业等领域的实践优势转化为规则优势，为全球治理贡献中国方案。

Optimizing the Overall Ecosystem through Further Deepening Reform Comprehensively

以进一步全面深化改革优化整体生态

The construction of the business environment during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period must further deepen reform comprehensively, adhere to a systematic perspective, and regard it as a complex giant system composed of subsystems such as market access, fair competition, property rights protection, factor allocation, market supervision, government services, and legal guarantees. The focus of construction should shift from "advancing on a single front" to "system integration," achieving a qualitative change from "physical superposition" to "chemical reaction," and forming new advantages in the business environment.

“十五五”时期的营商环境建设，必须进一步全面深化改革，坚持系统观念，将其视为由市场准入、公平竞争、产权保护、要素配置、市场监管、政务服务、法治保障等子系统构成的复杂巨系统。建设重心应从“单兵突进”转向“系统集成”，实现从“物理叠加”到“化学反应”的质变，形成营商环境新优势。

Strengthen institutional coordination and break down barriers in basic market systems. Efforts should be focused on the systematic integration of areas such as the commercial system, credit supervision, property rights protection, and market-oriented allocation of factors, eliminating friction and conflict between systems. Build a new type of credit-based regulatory mechanism, comprehensively collect credit information throughout the entire life cycle of enterprises, form a precise "credit portrait," and solve the problem of information asymmetry. Based on this, implement graded and classified supervision, leaving those who are honest and law-abiding "undisturbed when they are not in violation," reducing compliance costs; and holding a "sharp sword" over those who violate the law and break trust, increasing the cost of violations, forming an effective incentive and constraint mechanism. In particular, it is necessary to strengthen the sharing and application of credit information, break "data silos," and form a regulatory synergy.

强化制度协同，打通市场基础制度阻隔。应着力推动商事制度、信用监管、产权保护、要素市场化配置等领域的系统整合，消除制度间的摩擦和冲突。构建以信用为基础的新型监管机制，全面归集企业全生命周期信用信息，形成精准“信用画像”，解决信息不对称问题。据此实施分级分类监管，对诚信守法者“无事不扰”，降低合规成本；对违法失信者“利剑高悬”，提高违法成本，形成有效的激励约束机制。特别是要加强信用信息的共享和应用，打破“数据孤岛”，形成监管合力。

Coordinate the relationship between an effective market and a competent government, and improve governance efficiency. Fully implement the "random selection of inspectors and inspection targets and the timely disclosure of results" [4]4 "Random selection of inspectors and inspection targets and the timely disclosure of results" (双随机、一公开) is a regulatory model where both the entities to be inspected and the inspectors are randomly selected, and the results are made public. supervision, promote cross-departmental comprehensive supervision, solve the problem of repeated enforcement by multiple departments, and reduce interference with the normal business activities of enterprises. Continue to deepen "Internet + government services," promote more matters to be "handled online in one go" and "handled across provinces," and reduce institutional transaction costs. Use big data to achieve precise delivery of pro-business policies and "enjoyment without application" and "direct and fast enjoyment," ensuring the efficient disbursement of policy dividends and improving the efficiency of policy implementation.

统筹好有效市场和有为政府的关系，提升治理效能。全面推行“双随机、一公开”监管，推进跨部门综合监管，破解多头重复执法问题，降低对企业正常经营活动的干扰。持续深化“互联网+政务服务”，推动更多事项“一网通办”“跨省通办”，降低制度性交易成本。利用大数据实现惠企政策精准推送与“免申即享”“直达快享”，确保政策红利高效兑付，提高政策执行效率。

Consolidate the foundation of the rule of law and provide stable and reliable guarantees. At the legislative level, it is necessary to accelerate the filling of legal gaps in emerging fields such as the digital economy and artificial intelligence, revise and improve regulations related to the market economy, and form a complete system of legal norms. At the law enforcement level, we must adhere to law-based governance, standardize discretionary powers, and fully implement the three systems of administrative law enforcement [5]5 The three systems of administrative law enforcement refer to the systems of recording the entire law enforcement process, publicizing major law enforcement decisions, and conducting legal review of law enforcement decisions, which were established to ensure transparency, accountability, and legality in administrative enforcement. to prevent selective enforcement and unfair enforcement. At the judicial level, it is necessary to strengthen equal protection of the property rights of all types of market entities, unify the application of law, strengthen judicial protection of intellectual property rights, improve mechanisms for the rescue and exit of market entities, promptly realize the rights and interests of winning parties, and improve the judicial guarantee mechanism for a law-based business environment.

夯实法治根基，提供稳定可靠保障。立法层面，需加快填补数字经济、人工智能等新兴领域法律空白，修订完善市场经济相关法规，形成完备的法律规范体系。执法层面，要坚持依法行政，规范自由裁量权，全面落实行政执法三项制度，防止选择性执法和执法不公。司法层面，需强化对各类市场主体产权的平等保护，统一法律适用，加强知识产权司法保护，完善市场主体救治与退出机制，及时兑现胜诉权益，完善法治化营商环境司法保障机制。

(Author: Qin Pingshan, specially appointed researcher of the Hebei Provincial Research Center for the Theory of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics, and associate researcher at Hebei University of Science and Technology)

（作者：秦平山，系河北省中国特色社会主义理论体系研究中心特约研究员、河北科技大学副研究员）

Online editor: Huihui

网络编辑：慧慧