CASS Forum sheds light on new development pattern
Customers select products in a duty-free shopping mall in Haikou, south China’s Hainan Province, Oct. 4. Hainan raked in 1.04 billion RMB in duty-free sales during the National Day holiday, a year-on-year increase of 148.7%. Photo: Pu Xiaoxu/XINHUA
Experts analyzed China’s new development pattern at the National High-End Think Tank Forum of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) in Beijing in late September.
CASS President Xie Fuzhan said that the prosperity and development of philosophy and social sciences must address the style of study. The style of study is a concentrated expression of world outlook, epistemology, values and methodology, a comprehensive reflection of the scientific and humanistic spirit of scholars, and the foundation of philosophy and social science research institutions and researchers.
In recent years, the Party and the state have issued a series of policies and measures to strengthen the style of study. CASS must set an example and a benchmark in promoting a good style of study, integrating theory with practice, strengthening problem orientation and conducting in-depth investigation and research. It must continuously improve evaluation mechanisms, have strict management and requirements, and strive to form a good style of study, thus laying a solid foundation for accelerated construction of philosophy and social sciences with Chinese characteristics.
The process of China’s opening to the outside world is accompanied by the world trade pattern’s return to the theory of comparative advantage, said Cai Fang, CASS vice president. Compared with other countries transitioning to a market economy, China opened up to the outside world earlier, followed the principle of comparative advantage, and used its abundant labor resources to win opportunities in international competition.
When experiencing the Lewis continuum between 2004 and 2010, China’s economic growth rate slowed down, but this does not mean that the theory of comparative advantage is wrong, Cai continued. The comparative advantage is dynamic, and the key is to tap into the inherent potential of the concept and fully realize it.
Cai suggested creating an extended theoretical understanding of comparative advantage, which specifically shifts from product trade to value chain trade, propelling the “flying geese model” from international circulation to domestic circulation, and shifting focus from the supply side to the demand side. In this way, domestic and external demand, domestic and international circulation, supply-side reforms and demand-side policy adjustments are unified and mutually promoted. This is also needed to construct a new development pattern that prioritizes the domestic market as the foundation while letting domestic and foreign markets boost each other.
Gao Peiyong, CASS vice president, said that the new development pattern is a necessary choice to respond to and resolve the current risks and challenges facing China’s economic development. It is not a restart, but a theoretical innovation based on existing theories and practice, adding a “safety” dimension to the original ideas and strategic considerations. Economic security includes industrial chain security, supply chain security, energy security, service industry security, financial security, fiscal security and other connotations, of which fiscal security is particularly important.
For the sake of economic development and economic work, we must have comprehensive, dialectical and long-term assessments of the difficulties, risks and challenges we face, Gao continued. To implement a proactive fiscal policy, we must simultaneously focus on both quantity and quality. He also suggested reducing taxes and fees while cutting expenditures to ensure fiscal sustainability. It is also necessary to beware of spillovers of fiscal expenditure expansion effects under the epidemic, and be vigilant against fiscal deficits.
Building a new development pattern based on unblocking the domestic economic circulation is an inherent need for China to become a world economic power, said Li Yang, director of the Academic Division of Economics at CASS. The transformation of the development pattern should be a process of deepening market-oriented reforms, which needs to be realized through market mechanisms. As such, it is necessary to further comprehensively deepen market-oriented reforms, and vigorously promote the market-oriented reforms of factors of production. He also suggested effectively strengthening the protection of property rights and intellectual property rights. It is important to strengthen the role of enterprises as the main players and to further improve the business environment in China, ensuring that the market can play a decisive role in the transformation of the resource allocation pattern.
Finance is a major carrier of the allocation of resources, Li continued. Accelerating the market-oriented reform of the financial industry and improving the efficiency of financial resource allocation are both of great significance to comprehensively deepening market-oriented reforms. To deepen financial reform, it is necessary to create conditions for market-based resource allocation mechanisms, and improve interest rate curves, exchange rate curves and treasury bond yield curves. He also suggested further optimizing the financial institution system, developing capital markets, adjusting the debt market structure according to market requirements, and promoting the healthy development of financial technology.
Edited by JIANG HONG