Vitality and confidence boosts for market players

The Government Work Report said that governments at various levels should unswervingly deepen reform to energize the market and boost the internal driving force for development, and they should balance the relationship between the government and the market, and ensure that the market plays a decisive role in the allocation of resources.

By rationally arranging the deficit-to-GDP ratio, the government has guaranteed sufficient space for tax cuts and fee exemptions for businesses. It is estimated that the overall tax cuts and fee exemptions will be about 2.5 trillion yuan ($393.5 billion), among which 1.5 trillion yuan will take the form of tax rebates.

The government has proposed encouraging financial institutions to lower real lending rates and fees, so that market entities can access financing at lower costs.

In addition, according to the Government Work Report, the government will also reduce some irrational electricity prices, guide large-scale platform enterprises to reduce their charges for small and micro businesses, reform industrial associations, reduce intermediary fees and address arbitrary fees and fines in a bid to ease the burden on small businesses.

To boost the confidences of market entities, the authorities need to promote the common development of economic entities of different forms of ownership, particularly private companies, and ensure that they have equal access to production factors in accordance with the law and they can participate in market competition on a level playing field.

The country should make unswerving efforts to strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights and create a favorable environment for healthy market competition so that enterprises of all forms of ownership can thrive.

The country must continue to accelerate the transformation of government functions, develop a high-standard market system in which the relations between government and enterprises are clean and based on the law, showing zero-tolerance to the exchange of power for money and commercial bribery.

The regulation of the market, especially capital flows, must always be carried out in accordance with the law to protect property rights, promote the spirit of contract and boost fair competition.