Continuously Strengthen and Leverage the Advantages of the Ultra-Large-Scale Market

The ultra-large-scale market is a significant advantage for China’s economic development and a crucial strategic resource for participating in international competition. It is not only a stabilizer for economic operations but also a power source for shaping new drivers and new advantages. The period of the 14th Five-Year Plan holds a pivotal role in linking the past and the future within the process of basically realizing socialist modernization. The Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Party [1]1 The "three-electric" system refers to the electric motor, power battery, and electronic control system, which are the core components of new energy vehicles. pointed out that China’s economic foundation is stable, its advantages are numerous, its resilience is strong, and its potential is vast. The supporting conditions and basic trends for long-term positive growth have not changed. The institutional advantages of socialism with Chinese characteristics, the advantages of the ultra-large-scale market, the advantages of a complete industrial system, and the advantages of abundant human resources are becoming even more prominent.

超大规模市场是我国经济发展的显著优势和参与国际竞争的重要战略资源，不仅是经济运行的稳定器，更是塑造新动能新优势的动力源。“十五五”时期在基本实现社会主义现代化进程中具有承前启后的重要地位。党的二十届四中全会指出，我国经济基础稳、优势多、韧性强、潜能大，长期向好的支撑条件和基本趋势没有变，中国特色社会主义制度优势、超大规模市场优势、完整产业体系优势、丰富人才资源优势更加彰显。

The advantage of the ultra-large-scale market is not only reflected in scale effects but is a systemic advantage encompassing multiple dimensions, including expanding increments, improving quality and efficiency, and smoothing circulation. During the period of the 14th Five-Year Plan, China’s development environment faces complex changes. Deeply understanding the essence of the ultra-large-scale market advantage, and continuously strengthening and fully leveraging this advantage, is an inevitable choice for China to seize strategic initiative amidst changes unseen in a century in the world and to solidly advance high-quality development.

超大规模市场优势并非只体现在规模效应上，而且是包含拓展增量、提升质效、畅通循环等多个维度在内的系统性优势。“十五五”时期，我国发展环境面临复杂变化，深刻理解超大规模市场优势的要义，持续增强和充分发挥这一优势，是我国在世界百年变局中把握战略主动、扎实推进高质量发展的必然选择。

The Source of Strong Confidence and Strategic Resolve

强大底气和定力所在

In the game among major powers, the market itself is a scarce resource and an important bargaining chip. The proposal for the 14th Five-Year Plan emphasizes that “a strong domestic market is the strategic foundation for Chinese-path modernization.” The key reason it constitutes a strategic foundation lies in the breadth, depth, and resilience of the domestic market, which provides strong support for China to maintain strategic resolve and achieve technological self-reliance and self-strengthening. Facing trade protectionism and external technological blockades, the ultra-large-scale market can provide enterprises with alternative space for growth, accelerate the tackling of key technologies and the process of localization, and especially provide more patient capital and application scenarios for the long-cycle research, development, and application of core hard technologies.

在大国博弈中，市场本身就是稀缺资源和重要筹码。“十五五”规划建议强调，“强大国内市场是中国式现代化的战略依托”。之所以构成战略依托，关键在于国内市场的广度、深度与韧性，这为我国保持战略定力、实现科技自立自强提供了有力支撑。面对贸易保护主义和外部技术封锁，超大规模市场能够为企业提供替代性成长空间，加速关键技术攻关与国产化进程，尤其是能为硬核科技的长周期研发应用提供更多耐心资本和应用场景。

Relying on its large market, China has expanded its influence in participating in global

我国依托大市场扩大了参与全球经济治理的影响力。从国际经验来看，拥有较大市场规模的经济体，在国际贸易谈判、标准制定、规则协商中拥有更大话语权和回旋余地。我国已成为全球产业链供应链中不可或缺的重要节点，越来越多跨国公司将供应链关键环节布局在我国，以贴近终端消费市场、降低物流成本、快速响应需求变化。同时，我国在5G通信、移动支付、新型零售等领域逐步形成了具有全球影响力的市场标准与商业模式。

At the same time, a super-scale market means it can satisfy diversified and multi-tiered demands, thereby improving the adaptability of supply and demand and enhancing the balance between supply and demand. China has a population of over 1.4 billion and a middle-income group exceeding 400 million. The development of regional markets exhibits a gradient pattern. From cities to counties, and from the east to the central and western regions, different vertical and horizontal segments complement and support each other, enabling an effective response to external shocks and new changes brought about by domestic economic structural adjustments. In international economic and trade struggles, the supporting role of China's domestic demand market for the economic fundamentals has become increasingly evident, demonstrating strong resilience against shocks. When consumption growth in some cities slows down, the vast markets in third-tier and below cities, counties, and rural areas can further release demand potential, promoting stable growth in consumption.

与此同时，超大规模市场意味着可以满足多样化和多层次的需求，从而提高供需适配性、增强供需平衡性。我国拥有14亿多人口、超4亿中等收入群体，区域市场发展呈现梯度特征，从城市到县域、东部到中西部，纵向和横向不同板块之间具有互补支撑性，能够有效应对外部冲击和国内经济结构调整带来的新变化。在国际经贸斗争中，我国内需市场对经济基本盘的支撑作用愈发明显，展现出抗冲击的强大韧性。当部分城市消费增速有所放缓时，还有广阔的三线及以下城市、县域及农村的市场可以进一步释放需求潜力，促进消费保持稳定增长态势。

Forming a Gravitational Field for Factor Resources

形成要素资源引力场

The economies of scale and cost advantages of a market are important factors influencing the specialized division of labor. The economies of scale effect of a super-scale market is evident; it can support a more refined, scaled, and specialized division of labor, giving rise to more efficient supply chain networks. This not only helps enhance the competitive advantages of local enterprises but also facilitates the aggregation of global high-end factors, providing strong factor support for the development of emerging industries. For example, the rapid development of the new energy vehicle industry in recent years, with production and sales ranking first globally for many consecutive years, is inseparable from the supporting role of the domestic super-scale market. A large market can attract the concentration of high-quality resources such as domestic and foreign capital, talent, technology, and data, driving rapid breakthroughs and cost reductions in core technologies across the entire industrial chain, such as the "three-electric" system [1]1 The "three-electric" system refers to the electric motor, power battery, and electronic control system, which are the core components of new energy vehicles. and intelligent driving, thereby expanding the global market share of the new energy vehicle industry. It should also be noted that China's market possesses massive data generated by a vast number of consumer groups, as well as rich application scenarios. This will further enhance the willingness of global capital to invest, attracting top scientists and engineers from around the world to develop in China and enterprise R&D centers to establish a presence, bringing rare development opportunities for the intelligent economy and digital economy.

市场的规模经济和成本优势是影响专业化分工的重要因素。超大规模市场的规模经济效应明显，能够支撑更加精细化、规模化、专业化的分工，催生更高效率的供应链网络，这不仅有助于提升本土企业的竞争优势，也有利于汇聚全球高端要素，为新兴产业发展提供有力的要素支撑。例如，新能源汽车产业近年来迅速发展，产销量连续多年位居全球第一，离不开国内超大规模市场的支撑作用。大市场可以吸引国内外资本、人才、技术、数据等优质资源集聚，驱动“三电”系统、智能驾驶等全产业链核心技术实现快速突破和降低成本，进而扩大新能源汽车产业在全球市场的占有率。还要看到，我国市场拥有数量庞大的消费群体生成的海量数据，以及丰富的应用场景，这将进一步增强全球资本的投资意愿，吸引着世界各地的顶尖科学家、工程师来华发展和企业研发中心进驻，为智能经济、数字经济带来难得的发展机遇。

The attractiveness of a super-scale market is not a static advantage but a dynamic and reinforcing systemic advantage. In the short term, it is reflected in the aggregation and integration of existing resource factors; in the long term, by developing new technologies and new business forms, it generates higher demands for factor upgrading, thereby continuously strengthening the market's attraction to advanced and high-quality production factors. The more fully various production factors flow and are efficiently allocated, the smoother the economic cycle becomes, and the more it can form a gravitational field for global resource factors. While aggregating global high-end factors, it can also further promote domestic industrial upgrading and institutional innovation, forming a positive cycle of "factor aggregation—industrial upgrading—consumption upgrading—stronger gravitational pull," thereby enhancing the endogenous driving force of the economy. Especially in fields with rapid technological iteration, the inclusiveness of the super-scale market is more prominent. The vast market space can effectively diversify investment risks, increase the willingness for long-term capital allocation, and provide more stable expected returns for innovation projects with high uncertainty. Diversified and multi-tiered market demands will guide enterprises to increase R&D investment, optimize supply structures, and expand product portfolios, thereby continuously attracting the linkage and cooperation of domestic and international innovation resources.

超大规模市场的吸引力并非静态优势，而是一个动态增强的系统优势。短期来看，体现为对现有资源要素的集聚与整合；长期来看，通过发展新技术新业态，催生出更高的要素升级需求，从而不断强化市场对先进优质生产要素的吸引力。各类生产要素越是充分流动、高效配置，经济循环越顺畅，越能形成对全球资源要素的引力场。在汇聚全球高端要素的同时，也能进一步促使国内产业升级与制度创新，形成“要素汇聚—产业升级—消费升级—更强引力”的正向循环，从而增强经济内生动力。尤其在技术迭代迅速的领域，超大规模市场的包容性更加凸显，广阔的市场空间能够有效分散投资风险、提高资本长期配置意愿，为不确定性较高的创新项目提供更稳定的预期收益，多样化多层次的市场需求会引导企业加大研发投入、优化供给结构和拓展产品谱系，从而持续吸引国内外创新资源联动合作。

Nurturing Vitality and Generating Momentum

孕育活力生发动力

The vitality of China's market is embodied in the unremitting trial-and-error and catch-up efforts of innovative enterprises. A super-scale market serves as an "accelerator" for the incubation of new technologies and new products, capable of significantly shortening the industrialization and commercialization process of innovation achievements, thereby accelerating the conversion of old and new growth drivers. Thanks to the vast depth and breadth of China's market, new technologies and new products can quickly match initial users, complete the "from 0 to 1" verification breakthrough, and, relying on the effects of economies of scale and scope, rapidly spread R&D costs, creating opportunities for continuous innovation "from 1 to N." In particular, independent innovation enterprises can rely on the huge domestic user base to quickly complete technological iterations, continuously refine business models, and reduce the cost of innovation trial and error, thereby having the opportunity to achieve a leap from imitative innovation to original innovation.

我国市场的活力体现在创新型企业驰而不息的试错与追赶之中。超大规模市场是新技术新产品孵化的“加速器”，能够大幅缩短创新成果的产业化商业化进程，进而加快新旧动能转换。得益于我国市场纵深广阔，新技术新产品可以快速匹配到初始用户，完成“从0到1”的验证突破，并依托规模经济和范围经济效应，迅速摊薄研发成本，有机会实现“从1到N”的持续创新。尤其是自主创新企业可以依托本土庞大用户群快速完成技术迭代，不断打磨商业模式，降低创新试错成本，从而有机会实现从模仿创新到原始创新的跃升。

The vitality of China's market is contained in the process of continuous spiral escalation from the demand side to the supply side, moving towards the new and the excellent. The development speed and penetration rate of China's mobile payments, e-commerce, and livestreaming e-commerce lead the world. Relying on massive data and rich application scenarios, unique business advantages have been formed in fields such as artificial intelligence, 5G, and big data applications. From industry leaders to small and micro enterprises, and then to individual entrepreneurs, a broad-coverage, multi-tiered competitive landscape has taken shape. Various types of enterprises, relying on digital platforms, have significantly improved their response speed to personalized and quality-oriented demands, further activating the potential of the consumer market. Many new business forms and models with distinctive characteristics and market prospects have not only achieved rapid growth themselves but have also accumulated momentum to form an ecosystem that empowers millions of small and medium-sized merchants and creators. For example, relying on a huge young consumer group that prefers digital consumption, many new domestic brands have emerged in fields such as cosmetics, food, and electronic products. Livestreaming e-commerce has also given rise to new occupational forms related to the instant retail supply chain, such as livestreamers and operators, releasing strong economic vitality.

我国市场的活力蕴含于需求端到供给端不断螺旋推升、向新向优的过程中。我国移动支付、电子商务、直播带货等的发展速度和普及程度领先全球，依托海量数据和丰富应用场景，在人工智能、5G、大数据应用等领域形成了独特的商业优势。从行业龙头到中小微企业、再到个体创业者，形成了广覆盖、多层级的竞争格局。各类企业依托数字化平台，显著提升了对个性化品质化需求的响应速度，进一步激活了消费市场潜能。许多具有鲜明特色和市场前景的新业态新模式不仅实现了自身快速增长，也积厚成势形成了赋能千百万中小商户和创作者的生态系统。例如，依托偏好数字化消费的庞大年轻消费群体，在美妆、食品、电子产品等领域涌现出了很多新国货品牌，直播电商也催生了主播、运营等即时零售供应链相关的新职业形态，释放出强劲的经济活力。

Implementing Comprehensive Policies to Release Advantage Potential

综合施策释放优势潜能

The new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation is deepening, and new fields and tracks such as the digital economy, intelligent economy, green economy, and silver economy are constantly emerging, providing a historic opportunity for China to leverage its super-large market advantages and promote high-quality development. To accelerate the formation of more economic development models led by domestic demand, driven by consumption, and characterized by endogenous growth, it is necessary to fully leverage the advantages of the super-large market, continuously stimulate the potential of domestic demand, and generate endogenous growth momentum. At the same time, although China’s market advantages are evident, it also faces some challenges in the process of market development and construction, which must be objectively recognized and properly addressed. For example, there is local market segmentation and local protection behavior, affecting the overall scale effect of the market and the efficiency of resource allocation; the current contradiction between strong supply and weak demand is prominent, the effective supply capacity still needs to be enhanced, and overcapacity in some industries coexists with insufficient high-quality supply, making it difficult to meet the needs of consumption upgrading; there are still bottlenecks and blockages restricting consumption in areas such as income distribution, market infrastructure, and coordinated regional and urban-rural development. These factors all affect the further release of potential and vitality of the large market. In this regard, comprehensive measures need to be taken from multiple aspects: enhance market inclusiveness through institutional construction, enhance supply-demand adaptability through innovation-driven development, further stimulate diverse consumption vitality and multi-level market potential, strengthen the radiation and attractiveness of China’s market, and promote the transformation from a “large market” to a “strong market.”

新一轮科技革命和产业变革深入发展，数字经济、智能经济、绿色经济、银发经济等新领域新赛道不断涌现，为我国发挥超大规模市场优势、推动高质量发展提供了历史性机遇。加快形成更多由内需主导、消费拉动、内生增长的经济发展模式，必须充分发挥超大规模市场优势，持续激发内需潜力，形成内生增长动力。与此同时，尽管我国市场优势明显，但在市场发展和建设过程中也面临一些挑战，必须客观认识和妥善应对。例如，局部存在市场分割和地方保护行为，影响市场整体规模效应和资源配置效率；当前供强需弱矛盾突出，有效供给能力尚待增强，部分行业产能过剩与高端优质供给不足并存，难以满足消费升级需求；收入分配、市场基础设施、区域城乡协调发展等方面仍有制约消费的堵点卡点。这些因素都影响着大市场进一步释放潜力和迸发活力。对此，需从多方面综合施策，以制度建设增强市场包容性，以创新驱动增强供需适配性，进一步激发多元消费活力和多层次市场潜力，强化我国市场的辐射力和吸引力，推动“大市场”向“强市场”转变。

Deeply advance the construction of a unified national market and expand opening up to both domestic and foreign parties. Accelerate the formulation and introduction of regulations for the construction of a unified national market, focusing on achieving unification in property rights protection, market access, standard certification, and regulatory enforcement, removing various hidden barriers, and ensuring the free and efficient flow of factors and commodities nationwide. Promote high-level institutional opening up, align with high standards of international economic and trade rules, continuously optimize the business environment, maintain fair competition, protect intellectual property rights, expand imports of high-quality goods and services, and successfully host major exhibitions such as China Brand Day events, the China International Import Expo, and the China International Consumer Products Expo, making China’s large market more inclusive, sustainable, and globally attractive.

纵深推进全国统一大市场建设，扩大对内对外开放。加快制定出台全国统一大市场建设条例，重点在产权保护、市场准入、标准认证、监管执法上实现统一，破除各种隐性壁垒，确保要素和商品在全国范围内自由高效流动。推进高水平制度型开放，高标准对接国际经贸规则，持续优化营商环境、维护公平竞争、保护知识产权，扩大优质商品和服务进口，办好中国品牌日活动以及进博会、消博会等重大展会，让我国大市场更具包容性、可持续性和全球吸引力。

Promote the close integration of the industrial chain and innovation chain, and continuously enhance supply-demand adaptability. Further strengthen the virtuous cycle where competition stimulates innovation and innovation expands the market, implement the “open competition mechanism for key tasks” [2]2 The “open competition mechanism for key tasks” (揭榜挂帅) is a Chinese policy tool where research tasks are publicly announced, and teams or individuals compete to take them on, aiming to break bureaucratic barriers and incentivize innovation., organize scientific and technological research more oriented by industrial and market demands, and make enterprises the main body of innovation decision-making and application of results. Leverage the role of scenario-driven innovation, plan and open up a batch of major application scenarios in fields such as energy and transportation, healthcare, and urban governance, providing broader application demonstration space for cutting-edge technologies. Deeply carry out comprehensive reform pilot projects for market-based allocation of factors, promote the standardized and healthy development of the platform economy, and further improve the market mechanism and optimize the market structure.

促进产业链创新链紧密结合，持续增强供需适配性。进一步强化竞争激发创新、创新拓展市场的良性循环，实施“揭榜挂帅”机制，更多以产业需求、市场需求为导向组织科技攻关，让企业成为创新决策和成果应用的主体。发挥场景驱动创新作用，在能源交通、健康医疗、城市治理等领域谋划开放一批重大应用场景，为前沿技术提供更广阔的应用示范空间。深入开展要素市场化配置综合改革试点，促进平台经济规范健康发展，进一步完善市场机制、优化市场结构。

Promote the upgrading of consumption quality and expand the space for economic growth. The “largeness” of the super-large market lies not only in the huge population size but also in the thickness of consumption potential, the richness of levels, and the novelty of models. Increase residents’ income through multiple channels, implement income increase plans for urban and rural residents, promote the formation of an olive-shaped distribution pattern [3]3 An “olive-shaped distribution pattern” refers to a social structure with a large middle class and relatively small rich and poor segments, seen as a goal for equitable income distribution., enhance residents’ consumption capacity, stabilize consumption expectations, and improve the consumption environment. Promote the quality improvement and expansion of traditional consumption, accelerate the development of new types of consumption, and stimulate multi-level consumption and investment potential. Guided by the transformation towards greening, digitalization, and intelligence, cultivate new growth points such as smart homes, sports and entertainment, and health and elderly care, promote diversified service supply, strengthen guarantees in education, medical care, elderly care, and housing, and enhance the adaptability of the supply side to mid-to-high-end demand. Cultivate and expand the green consumption market, improve the carbon emission rights and energy use rights trading markets, and guide capital investment towards technological innovation, modern industries, and green transformation.

推动消费提质升级，拓宽经济增长空间。超大规模市场之大，在于人口规模庞大，更在于消费潜力之厚、层次之丰、模式之新。多渠道增加居民收入，实施城乡居民增收计划，推动形成橄榄型分配格局，提升居民消费能力、稳定消费预期、改善消费环境。促进传统消费提质扩容，推动新型消费加快发展，激发多层次消费与投资潜能。以绿色化、数字化、智能化转型为导向，培育智能家居、文体娱乐、健康养老等新增长点，促进多元化服务供给，加强教育、医疗、养老、住房等保障，增强供给侧对中高端需求的适配性。培育壮大绿色消费市场，健全碳排放权、用能权交易市场，引导资金投向科技创新、现代产业、绿色转型等领域。

Strengthen coordinated regional development and release multi-level market potential. Focus on the high-quality development of regional markets, strengthen the role of innovation sources in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, accelerate the integrated development of scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation in the Chengdu-Chongqing region and the middle reaches of the Yangtze River city clusters, and promote the characteristic development of the county economy. Further improve market infrastructure, improve the modern circulation system, upgrade and transform logistics and other infrastructure “hard connectivity,” strengthen the “soft connectivity” of institutional rules such as data, credit, and regulation, and promote the formation of a strong domestic market with larger scale, better structure, higher quality and efficiency, and more complete mechanisms.

加强区域协调发展，释放多层次市场潜力。聚焦区域市场高质量发展，强化京津冀、长三角、粤港澳大湾区等的创新策源作用，加快推动成渝、长江中游城市群等的科技创新与产业创新融合发展，促进县域经济特色化发展。进一步完善市场基础设施，健全现代流通体系，改造升级物流等基础设施“硬联通”，加强数据、信用、监管等制度规则“软联通”，推动形成规模更大、结构更优、质效更好、机制更完备的强大国内市场。

(The author is Deputy Director and Researcher of the Institute of Economic Research, National Development and Reform Commission)

（作者系国家发展改革委经济研究所副所长、研究员）

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