We need to improve the supervision approach to place more emphasis on the rule of law, fairness and accountability. The current practice of market supervision entails inspection of too many kinds without clearly defined rules, adding burdens to enterprises and creating room for rent seeking. On the other hand, market behaviors that should be subject to supervision by the government are left in benign neglect. The right approach to supervision requires both strictness and simplicity. The government should minimize intervention in people's lives and put in place a sound legal framework and proper and effective rules, procedures and standards for market supervision and publicize them fully so that market players will know where the line is drawn and carefully observe it. By so doing, the discretionary power of regulators will be slashed. Equally important, the government must carry out supervision in accordance with the law, maintain and safeguard the market order for fair competition. To use a sports metaphor, the government should be a good "referee" — leaving those well-behaved players alone while giving a timely yellow-card warning for minor fouls or a prompt red card for serious foul play. Needless to say, a referee should perform his duty faithfully and enforce the rules in a fair and just manner instead of being negligent or engaging in match-fixing. Regulators must be subject to supervision as well. Relevant information should be made public and a well-defined accountability system for supervision must be enforced.
We need to innovate supervision mechanisms and explore new ways to make supervision more effective. After active experiment over the past two years, local governments have gathered plenty of good experience and practices. Continuous efforts must be made to advance innovation in supervision. First, we need to put in place an integrated system for supervision and law enforcement. We should push ahead the building of a unified supervision platform that covers the entire scope of supervision by all government departments involved. Meanwhile, we need to consolidate administrative law enforcement teams to conduct cross-department and cross-sector law enforcement. The responsibilities of different law enforcement agencies can be merged into one to form synergy in supervision and law enforcement and avoid either overlapping responsibilities or blank spot. The result of supervision and law enforcement should be made public and put on record. After all, the most effective way to deal with unfair supervision and law enforcement is to expose them in the sun light. Second, we will carry out more ad hoc inspections. In some places and sectors, enterprises and regulators involved in inspections are now randomly selected through separate lotteries conducted on the same platform. We will popularize such practices across the country as they both increase pressure on the enterprises and narrow the space for rent seeking. Third, we will advance "smart" supervision. We should actively employ big data, cloud computing, the Internet of Things and other information technology to explore an "Internet Plus supervision" model. We should speed up information sharing and connectivity among departments at different levels to remove "isolated islands of information", so to speak. We will put in place a unified social credit system, an information disclosure and credit filing system, and an integrated punishment and black list mechanism so that one dishonest behavior will result in restrictions at every turn. Fourth, we need to strengthen public supervision. We need to have unimpeded channels for public complaints and tip-offs. We should give sufficient incentives to whistle-blowers and keep their identity confidential. Enterprises should bear the primary responsibility in the mutual supervision mechanism that can trace problems to the source. Industry self-regulation and peer review should be strengthened. Media scrutiny should be encouraged. All these efforts will help weave a tight net of supervision where nothing can escape public attention.
IV. Improve government services to better meet the need of the people and that of economic and social development
It falls upon the government to create conditions for its people to lead a decent life. Despite the tremendous efforts over the years made by governments at all levels, public goods and services remain inadequate. Promptly addressing this challenge will help bring about notable improvement in the capacity and quality of government services and an increase in effective investment, which will help counter the downward pressure on the economy. This calls for deepening reform, such as further streamlining administration and delegating power to remove obstacles and better leverage the role of market forces. The result of the reform can be measured by the rate of increase in public goods and services. By providing sufficient public goods and quality, efficient public services, we want to make entrepreneurship and innovation easier, economic development smoother, our people happier and our society more caring, harmonious, cohesive and dynamic.
(I) We will provide all-round services for mass entrepreneurship and innovation. This will help create jobs, which is also the aim of promoting stable growth. First, we need to strengthen policy support. We are looking at a series of policy measures in support of entrepreneurship and innovation with a focus on small and micro businesses on top of cutting taxes, slashing fees and reducing corporate burdens. We will provide support in terms of rent, office space, taxes and fees to various incubators such as makerspaces and Innovation Works. We will make government funds available to leverage private input through discounts, subsidies and venture capital funds. We will improve investment and financing mechanisms, develop venture capital, angel investment and other forms of investment, explore new business models and take multi-pronged steps to help entrepreneurs meet their financial needs. Second, we will put in place a platform for comprehensive services on which all the needs for entrepreneurship and innovation will be provided for. We will step up policy, legal and consulting services, better protect intellectual property rights and provide guidance to employment and entrepreneurship for college graduates and vocational training for rural migrant workers. Some of these services can be provided by the government directly, some can be purchased from specialized agencies and some others require the active involvement of intermediaries. Third, we will provide accessible and efficient services. It is already demanding for people to start up companies and make innovations. Governments at all levels and their staff must put themselves in the shoes of entrepreneurs and innovators, provide more tailor-made, thoughtful and speedy services with streamlined procedures. We will continue to offer one-window, one-stop and one-package services at government service centers, set up clearly defined procedures and standards, and shorten the approval time.
(II) We will provide fair and accessible public services to the people. Providing more public goods and services is not the one-man show of the government. We should introduce institutional innovation, use all the possible support of the society and make sure there is sound planning, standards, competition and stronger oversight. Enterprises and public organizations should be given the responsibility in whatever areas they have the interest and expertise, by way of authorization, contracting and purchase. For those services where government involvement is truly needed, there should be public-private partnership. This should also be applied whenever possible to the provision of basic public services. The government should try its best not to add staff or institutions and strive to do more with less. This will be conducive to the formation of a new public services mechanism and to the growth of privately-run service sectors in education, health care and old-age care. While working hard to provide sufficient public services, we should improve the fairness and accessibility of such services. We need to innovate the ways of delivering services to bring the greatest possible convenience and benefit to the people. It will be ideal if some services can be handled online, or by proxy or delivered to the doorstep which saves people the time of visiting government bureaus. When people do need to go to government bureaus, they should be notified of all the requirements beforehand and be able to complete the procedure with one or two visits. As for the various kinds of "certificates" people are asked to produce, they should be kept at a minimum, and they should be standardized and combined whenever possible. Those that are truly necessary should be verified through information sharing and coordination between government departments. Government at all levels and their staff must be committed to providing the greatest convenience for the people even if it means more work for themselves.
(III) We will make sure the government fulfill its responsibility to provide subsistence assistance for all. China is still a developing country with more than 70 million people living on the basic living allowances and roughly the same number of people living below the poverty line. Though we have established a social security system that covers the whole population, the level of welfare provided remains low, and many local governments have to struggle with fiscal crunch. Yet no difficulty should weaken our resolve to meet the basic needs of those people in poverty. When subsistence is guaranteed, business starters, especially the young people, will be free to pursue their ambitions and have something to fall back on even if they fail. We should pay more attention to the employment, social welfare, education, health care and old-age needs of groups in difficulty and accelerate the transformation of urban rundown areas and dilapidated houses in rural areas. Nonetheless, it should be pointed out that efforts to provide basic public services and improve people's livelihood should be based on reality and commensurate with the level of economic and social development in our country.
