Forming an Economic Order That Is "Vibrant Where It Should Be" and "Well-Managed Where It Should Be"

Forming a sound economic order is an inherent requirement of building a high-level socialist market economy system, and it is also an internal demand for promoting high-quality development and fostering social harmony and stability. The Central Economic Work Conference included "must achieve both being 'vibrant where it should be' and 'well-managed where it should be'" as a new understanding and insight for conducting economic work under the new circumstances. This is not only an important manifestation of the organic unity and coordinated synergy between an effective market and a competent government, but also an inevitable requirement for advancing the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity, demonstrating our Party's scientific grasp of the operational laws of the socialist market economy.

形成良好的经济秩序是构建高水平社会主义市场经济体制的题中之义，也是推动经济高质量发展和促进社会和谐稳定的内在要求。中央经济工作会议将“必须做到既‘放得活’又‘管得好’”作为做好新形势下经济工作新的认识和体会。这既是有效市场和有为政府有机统一、协同发力的重要体现，也是推进国家治理体系和治理能力现代化的必然要求，彰显了我们党对社会主义市场经济运行规律的科学把握。

Higher Requirements Placed on Economic Governance

对经济治理提出更高要求

General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out, "A key factor in the great success of China's economic development is that we have leveraged both the strengths of the market economy and the superiority of the socialist system." [1]1 Xi Jinping, "Speech at the 28th Collective Study Session of the Political Bureau of the 18th Central Committee" (November 2014). Looking back at the history since reform and opening up, in the process of exploring the socialist market economy system, China has consistently adjusted relations of production through reform, based on the internal needs of productive forces development and the actual conditions of the development stage, ensuring mutual adaptation between the government and the market, achieving a dynamic balance between "releasing" and "managing," and gradually forming an economic system and governance system that dynamically adapts to economic development.

习近平总书记指出，“我国经济发展获得巨大成功的一个关键因素，就是我们既发挥了市场经济的长处，又发挥了社会主义制度的优越性”。回顾改革开放以来的历史，我国在探索社会主义市场经济体制的过程中，始终根据生产力发展的内在需要以及发展阶段的现实条件，通过改革持续调整生产关系，保障政府与市场关系相互调适，实现“放”与“管”之间动态平衡，逐步形成与经济发展动态适配的经济体制和治理体系。

After reform and opening up in 1978, to solve the problem of the planned economy system constraining the development of productive forces and alleviate the contradiction of commodity shortages, China promoted reforms focused on "releasing" business entities, implementing rural reforms and urban state-owned enterprise reforms. The government significantly reduced planned intervention in production and sales, but the market supervision and management system had not yet been established, thus local market problems of "chaos once released" easily emerged. Starting in 1992, to adapt to the development trend of the vigorous rise of township enterprises and the emergence of the private economy, China promoted the establishment of the socialist market economy system, emphasizing both "enlivening" business entities and using means such as the tax-sharing system [2]2 The tax-sharing system (分税制) is a fiscal reform implemented in 1994 that redefined the revenue-sharing arrangement between the central and local governments, centralizing a larger share of tax revenues. and monetary policy to strive to regulate the macroeconomy, conducting certain explorations in managing the macroeconomy and stimulating micro-level vitality. After joining the World Trade Organization, facing the practical demands of deepening economic marketization, rule of law, and internationalization, China advanced related work in accelerating government function transformation and promoting market system construction. Problems of imbalance, incoordination, and unfairness accumulated in the early stages of reform and opening up were partially resolved. However, handling the relationship between government and market and coordinating "releasing" and "managing" are eternal topics of the market economy, requiring both gradual optimization as the economic development stage shifts and continuous adjustment under new development conditions.

1978年改革开放后，为了解决计划经济体制束缚生产力发展的问题，缓解商品短缺矛盾，我国推进以“放开”经营主体为重点的改革，推行农村改革和城市国有企业改革，政府大幅减少对生产和销售的计划干预，但市场监督管理的体系尚未建立，因此容易出现“一放就乱”的局部市场问题。1992年开始，为了顺应乡镇企业蓬勃兴起、民营经济崭露头角的发展趋势，我国推动建立社会主义市场经济体制，既强调“放活”经营主体，又以分税制、货币政策等手段努力调控宏观经济，在管理宏观经济和激发微观活力上进行了一定探索。加入世界贸易组织之后，面对经济市场化、法治化、国际化不断深化的现实需求，我国在加快政府职能转变、推进市场体系建设方面推进了相关工作，改革开放初期积累的不平衡、不协调、不公平问题得到一定解决。但是，处理好政府和市场关系、统筹好“放”和“管”等是市场经济永恒的话题，既要随着经济发展阶段转换逐步优化，也要在新的发展条件下不断调整。

Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, China's economic development has entered the New Era. Economic strength, scientific and technological strength, comprehensive national power, and the people's living standards have all leaped to new and higher levels, meaning the scale and structural complexity of China's economy have gradually increased; being overall in the middle-to-late stage of industrialization and the stable development stage of urbanization means China has gradually shifted from a phase of high-speed growth to a phase of high-quality development; the accelerated breakthrough of a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation means the technological conditions for China's economic operation and social development are undergoing profound changes; the world is undergoing changes unseen in a century, meaning the external environment for economic and social development has become more complex and volatile. These changes in the conditions of the productive forces have created a favorable environment for handling the relationship between government and market, and have also placed new demands.

党的十八大以来，我国经济发展进入了新时代。经济实力、科技实力、综合国力和人民生活水平跃上新的大台阶，意味着我国经济规模和经济结构复杂程度逐步提升；整体处于工业化中后期和城镇化稳定发展期，意味着我国逐步从高速增长阶段转向高质量发展阶段；新一轮科技革命和产业变革加速突破，意味着我国经济运行和社会发展的技术条件正在发生深刻变革；世界正经历百年未有之大变局，意味着经济社会发展的外部环境更加复杂多变。这些生产力领域的条件变化，为处理好政府和市场关系创造了良好环境，亦提出了新的要求。

The Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee clearly stated that economic system reform is the focus of comprehensively deepening reforms, and the core issue is handling the relationship between government and market, enabling the market to play a decisive role in resource allocation and allowing the government to better play its role. The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee included "both being 'vibrant where it should be' and 'well-managed where it should be'" as an important element of building a high-level socialist market economy system. Subsequently, the "Proposal of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development," reviewed and approved by the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee, further established "forming an economic order that is both 'vibrant where it should be' and 'well-managed where it should be'" as an important task for adhering to the combination of an effective market and a competent government.

党的十八届三中全会明确提出，经济体制改革是全面深化改革的重点，核心问题是处理好政府和市场的关系，使市场在资源配置中起决定性作用和更好发挥政府作用。党的二十届三中全会将“既‘放得活’又‘管得住’”作为构建高水平社会主义市场经济体制的重要内容，继而党的二十届四中全会审议通过的《中共中央关于制定国民经济和社会发展第十五个五年规划的建议》又将“形成既‘放得活’又‘管得好’的经济秩序”作为坚持有效市场和有为政府相结合的重要任务。

Compared with "well-managed where it should be" versus "well-controlled where it should be," seemingly a difference of just one character, it actually places higher requirements on the methods of China's economic governance. This emphasizes that governance must better embody law-based governance, improve the basic systems of the market economy, and gradually achieve an upgrade to "institutional governance"; this means governance must be more precise and flexible, both avoiding "market failure" and better playing the government's role, gradually realizing a transformation from "blocking" to "guiding"; this also points to governance needing to be more forward-looking, gradually shifting to a combination of ex-ante source prevention, in-process evaluation and adjustment, and ex-post collaborative governance, focusing more on enhancing the self-development resilience of the economic system.

“管得好”相较“管得住”，看似一字之差，实则对我国经济治理的方式提出了更高的要求。这强调治理要更加体现依法治国，完善市场经济基础制度，逐步实现向“制度型治理”跃升；这意味着治理要更加精准灵活，既避免“市场失灵”，又更好发挥政府作用，逐步实现由“堵”向“疏”的转变；这也指向治理要更加具有前瞻性，逐步转向事前源头预防、事中评估调整、事后协同治理相结合，更着眼于增强经济系统的自身发展韧性。

Focus on Objectives and Coordinate Three Relationships

着眼目标统筹好三个关系

According to public policy theory, important goals of economic governance include improving the efficiency of resource allocation, promoting income redistribution, stabilizing economic operation and growth, etc. In recent years, countries have also taken ensuring security as an important dimension of economic governance. Therefore, regarding these four aspects, "well-managed where it should be" compared to "well-controlled where it should be" has also achieved a new transformation in the concept of economic governance.

根据公共政策理论，经济治理的重要目标包括提升资源配置效率、促进收入再分配、稳定经济运行和增长等，近年来各国也将保障安全作为经济治理的重要维度。因此，针对这四个方面，“管得好”相较“管得住”，在经济治理的理念上也实现了新的转变。

From the perspective of improving efficiency, "well-controlled where it should be" emphasizes more on correcting market failures such as excessive competition and monopoly through administrative and legal means; while "well-managed where it should be" further requires, while solving market externality problems, stimulating market vitality through precise regulation and institutional innovation, promoting a Pareto optimum in resource allocation.

从提升效率角度看，“管得住”更多强调通过行政、法律等手段纠正过度竞争、垄断等市场失灵问题；而“管得好”则进一步要求在解决市场外部性问题的同时，通过精准调控和制度创新激发市场活力，促进资源配置的帕累托最优。

From the perspective of promoting fairness, "well-controlled where it should be" emphasizes more on maintaining the bottom line of fairness in the market and society by governing unfair competition and regulating income distribution; while "well-managed where it should be" further requires, on the basis of achieving basic fairness, constructing a fair system of equal opportunities for business entities and various social groups through institutional design and policy support.

从促进公平角度看，“管得住”更多强调通过治理不正当竞争、规范收入分配等，守住市场和社会的公平底线；而“管得好”则进一步要求在实现基本公平的基础上，通过制度设计和政策支持，为经营主体和社会各类群体构建机会均等的公平体系。

From the perspective of maintaining stability, "well-controlled where it should be" emphasizes more on ensuring that the overall economic situation does not experience major fluctuations through macro-prudential management and micro-prudential regulation; while "well-managed where it should be" further requires enhancing the economic system's ability to adapt to and recover from shocks, as well as its long-term competitiveness, through precise regulation and compliance supervision.

从维护稳定的角度看，“管得住”更多强调通过宏观审慎管理和微观审慎监管，确保经济大盘不出现大的波动；而“管得好”则进一步要求通过精准调控和合规性监管，提升经济体系应对冲击的适应和修复能力以及长期竞争力。

From the perspective of ensuring security, "well-controlled where it should be" emphasizes more on holding the red line of security through strict supervision and control; while "well-managed where it should be" further requires coordinating "holding the bottom line" and "promoting development," better balancing development and security, effectively safeguarding national economic security in the process of opening up, and achieving a positive interaction between high-quality development and high-level security.

从保障安全的角度看，“管得住”更多强调通过严格监管和管控，守住安全红线；而“管得好”则进一步要求协同好“守牢底线”和“促进发展”，更好统筹发展和安全，并在开放中有效维护国家经济安全，实现高质量发展和高水平安全良性互动。

At the same time, in practice, focusing on maintaining economic order and optimizing economic governance, and effectively achieving both being "vibrant where it should be" and "well-managed where it should be," also requires paying attention to coordinating three relationships.

与此同时，在实践中，着眼于维护经济秩序和优化经济治理，切实做到既“放得活”又“管得好”，还要注重统筹好三个关系。

Coordinate the relationship between efficiency and fairness. Efficiency and fairness are two major goals pursued by economic governance; coordinating their relationship is an important requirement for being "vibrant where it should be" and "well-managed where it should be." "Vibrant where it should be" focuses on improving efficiency, allowing the market to play a decisive role in resource allocation by streamlining administration and delegating power, removing institutional obstacles, encouraging various business entities to boldly explore and actively compete, and creating social wealth with higher efficiency. "Well-managed where it should be" focuses on safeguarding fairness, improving regulatory rules, cracking down on monopolies and unfair competition, standardizing market order; at the same time, through means such as tax adjustment, social security, and equalization of public services, making up for the shortcomings of spontaneous market regulation, allowing the fruits of development to benefit all people more and more fairly.

统筹好效率和公平的关系。效率和公平是经济治理追求的两大目标，统筹好二者关系是“放得活”与“管得好”的重要要求。“放得活”重点要提升效率，通过简政放权、破除体制机制障碍，让市场在资源配置中起决定性作用，鼓励各类经营主体大胆探索、积极竞争，以更高效率创造社会财富。“管得好”重点要守护公平，完善监管规则，打击垄断和不正当竞争行为，规范市场秩序；同时通过税收调节、社会保障、公共服务均等化等手段，弥补市场自发调节的短板，让发展成果更多更公平惠及全体人民。

Coordinate the relationship between innovation and stability. Innovation is the primary driving force leading development; stability is the prerequisite for sustained development. The balance between stability and innovation is the practical requirement for being "vibrant where it should be" and "well-managed where it should be." "Vibrant where it should be" focuses on stimulating innovation, relaxing access restrictions on emerging fields and new business forms, giving innovation entities greater room for trial and error, encouraging technological innovation, model innovation, and institutional innovation, releasing the vitality of innovation and creation. "Well-managed where it should be" emphasizes building a solid bottom line of stability, establishing and improving risk prevention and control mechanisms, making advance judgments and timely interventions on potential risks and hazards that may arise during the innovation process; at the same time, properly handling the adjustment of interest distribution brought about by innovation, ensuring the overall stability of society.

统筹好创新和稳定的关系。创新是引领发展的第一动力，稳定是持续发展的前提，稳定和创新的平衡是“放得活”与“管得好”的实践要求。“放得活”重点要激发创新，放宽对新兴领域、新业态的准入限制，给予创新主体更大的试错空间，鼓励技术创新、模式创新、制度创新，释放创新创造的活力。“管得好”则强调筑牢稳定底线，建立健全风险防控机制，对创新过程中可能出现的风险隐患提前预判、及时干预；同时，妥善处理创新带来的利益分配调整，保障社会大局稳定。

We must properly balance the relationship between development and security. Development is the guarantee of security, and security is the prerequisite for development. Balancing development and security is a major principle of our Party’s governance, and it is also the baseline requirement for “enabling vitality” and “ensuring good governance.” The focus of “enabling vitality” is to liberalize areas that enhance the momentum of development, promote the free flow of factors, deepen opening up and international cooperation, and promote higher-quality development through a higher level of opening up. The focus of “ensuring good governance” is to hold fast to the red line of security, concentrate on key areas, strengthen bottom-line thinking, and improve the security prevention and control system; while expanding opening up, we must guard against the importation of external risks and ensure that development does not deviate from the track of security.

统筹好发展和安全的关系。发展是安全的保障，安全是发展的前提。统筹发展和安全是我们党治国理政的一个重大原则，也是“放得活”与“管得好”的底线要求。“放得活”的重点在于放开有利于增强发展动能的领域，推动要素自由流动，深化对外开放合作，以更高水平的开放促进更高质量的发展。“管得好”的重点则在于守好安全红线，聚焦关键领域，强化底线思维，完善安全防控体系；在扩大开放的同时，防范外部风险输入，确保发展不偏离安全轨道。

Comprehensively Safeguarding a Sound Economic Order

全方位维护良好经济秩序

General Secretary Xi Jinping has emphasized that the purpose of “enabling” is to remove institutional mechanisms that hinder the development of productive forces, and the essential requirement of “governing” is to build a law-based economy. In the recent period, the impact of changes in China’s external environment has deepened, the contradiction between strong supply and weak demand domestically has intensified, risks and hidden dangers in key areas are numerous, and the expectations of economic actors are unstable. This can easily trigger a chain of reactions and also places new demands on forming an economic order that both “enables vitality” and “ensures good governance.” We should promptly proceed from three levels—macroeconomic governance, meso-level industrial promotion, and micro-level order maintenance—to gradually form an economic order characterized by vibrant market vitality, fair and orderly competition, reasonable income distribution, and strong security resilience.

习近平总书记强调，“放”的目的是破除影响生产力发展的体制机制障碍，“管”的本质要求是建设法治经济。近一段时期，我国外部环境变化影响加深、国内供强需弱矛盾突出、重点领域风险隐患较多，经营主体预期不稳，进而容易引发一系列连锁反应，亦对形成既“放得活”又“管得好”的经济秩序提出了新要求。应尽快从宏观经济治理、中观产业促进以及微观秩序维护三个层面着手，逐步形成市场活力迸发、竞争公平有序、收入分配合理、安全韧性强劲的经济秩序。

In macroeconomic regulation and control, attention must be paid to the foresight, precision, and coordination of governance. Macroeconomic regulation and control is an important means for the government to perform its economic functions, and it is also a key support for achieving “enabling vitality” and “ensuring good governance.” We must coordinate counter-cyclical and cross-cyclical adjustments, improve the expectation management mechanism, enhance policy transparency, and strengthen responses to nascent, trending, and potential problems. We must promote “targeted treatment” with macro-policy tools, build a regulatory model that coordinates counter-cyclical and cross-cyclical adjustments, accurately grasp the timing, intensity, and effectiveness of macro-policy implementation, and avoid the lag effects and overreactions of policies. We must strengthen the strategic guiding role of national development plans, enhance coordination between fiscal and monetary policies, promote coordination between macroeconomic and microeconomic policies, strengthen coordination between economic and non-economic policies, improve the mechanism for consistency assessment of macro-policy orientations, focus on building policy transmission mechanisms, continuously enhance the effectiveness of macroeconomic regulation, and effectively stimulate micro-level market vitality.

在宏观经济调控中，要注重治理的前瞻性、精准性、协同性。宏观经济调控是政府履行经济职能的重要手段，更是实现“放得活”和“管得好”的关键支撑。要统筹好逆周期与跨周期调节，健全预期管理机制，提高政策透明度，强化对苗头性、倾向性、潜在性问题的应对。要促进宏观政策工具的“靶向施治”，构建逆周期和跨周期调节相协同的调控模式，准确把握宏观政策实施的时、度、效，避免政策的滞后效应和过度反应。要强化国家发展规划战略导向作用，加强财政政策与货币政策协同，促进宏观经济政策与微观经济政策协同，强化经济政策与非经济政策协同，健全宏观政策取向一致性评估机制，注重政策传导机制建设，不断提升宏观调控效能，有效激发微观市场活力。

In promoting industrial development, attention must be paid to the guidance, fairness, and inclusiveness of governance. Promoting industrial development requires both “enabling vitality,” fully stimulating the innovation vitality and competitive vitality of economic actors, and “ensuring good governance,” guiding the healthy development of industries through scientific and effective governance. We should promote the gradual transformation of industrial policies toward a functional orientation and toward improving the business environment. We must ensure fair competition among all forms of ownership economies, promote the coordinated development of traditional and emerging industries, facilitate the integrated development of large, medium, and small enterprises, encourage the development of new business models, and leave sufficient space for industrial technological innovation and format innovation. At the same time, we should optimize the industrial development ecosystem, build a collaborative support system of “policy + services + innovation + finance + talent,” remove bottlenecks in enterprise development, and provide a long-term mechanism for sustained industrial development.

在产业发展促进中，要注重治理的引导性、公平性、包容性。促进产业发展，既要“放得活”，充分激发经营主体的创新活力和竞争活力；又要“管得好”，通过科学有效的治理引导产业健康发展。推动产业政策逐步向功能性转变，向有利于营商环境改善转变。要保障各种所有制经济公平竞争，推动传统产业与新兴产业协同发展，促进大中小企业融通发展，鼓励发展新商业模式，为产业技术创新和业态创新留足空间。同时，优化产业发展生态，构建“政策+服务+创新+金融+人才”协同支撑体系，打通企业发展中的堵点，为产业持续发展提供长效机制。

In maintaining market order, attention must be paid to the rule of law, standardization, and normalization of governance. Market order is the guarantee of economic vitality, and maintaining market order is an important manifestation of “enabling vitality” and “ensuring good governance.” We must improve the basic systems of the market economy, resolutely remove blockages and obstacles hindering the construction of a unified national market, and equally protect the property rights of all types of ownership enterprises and the legitimate rights and interests of entrepreneurs in accordance with the law. We must standardize law enforcement and judicial behavior in the market field, clarify the benchmark for administrative penalties, implement “dual random, one public”[3]3 “Dual random, one public” refers to a regulatory method in which both the entities to be inspected and the inspectors are randomly selected, and the inspection results are promptly made public. supervision, implement credit-based classified and graded supervision, explore inclusive and prudent supervision and flexible supervision in new industries and new fields, and enhance the adaptability and actual effectiveness of supervision. We should promote the shift of market supervision toward “normalized governance,” establish a full-process prevention and control mechanism covering source governance, early correction, and recovery and disposal, improve the credit supervision mechanism, build a smart supervision system, fully leverage the role of social supervision and public opinion supervision, make standardizing market behavior a consensus, make fair competition the norm, and create a favorable market environment for economic development.

在市场秩序维护中，要注重治理的法治化、规范化、常态化。市场秩序是经济活力的保障，维护市场秩序是“放得活”和“管得好”的重要体现。要完善市场经济基础制度，坚决破除阻碍全国统一大市场建设卡点堵点，依法平等保护各类所有制企业产权和企业家合法权益。要规范市场领域执法司法行为，明确行政处罚裁量基准，推行“双随机、一公开”监管，实施信用分级分类监管，在新业态新领域探索包容审慎监管和柔性监管，提升监管适应性和实际效能。推动市场监管转向“常态化治理”，建立涵盖源头治理、早期纠正、恢复处置的全流程防控机制，完善信用监管机制，构建智慧监管体系，充分发挥社会监督、舆论监督的作用，让规范市场行为成为共识，让公平竞争成为常态，为经济发展营造良好市场环境。

(The author is a researcher at the Market and Price Research Institute of the National Development and Reform Commission)

（作者系国家发展改革委市场与价格研究所研究员）