The State Council, China's Cabinet, issued a statement on Monday saying it plans to carry out a comprehensive inspection of the business environment, particularly for small and micro-sized private enterprises and businesses, in 16 provincial-level regions next month.
The authorities welcome feedback from various market entities through an online platform they have built for the mission.
Feedback is being sought on five main areas: obstacles to the development of the private economy, interference with the construction of a unified national market, factors impacting domestic demand expansion, obstacles to comprehensively promoting rural vitalization, and failure to properly protect and improve people's living conditions. All of these five areas are major complaints of the private companies as well as the people, exposing the "weak spots" in governance and public services of the government.
Back in July and August, the central government had introduced a series of policies and measures to promote the development of the private enterprises. The State Council's latest move aims at effectively implementing those policies. It is clear that the central government is determined to remove obstacles to the development of private economy, as well as reduce the interferences from local governments and relevant departments on the market economy. That's why it turns to the public and the market directly for reports on practical problems this time.
Although many local governments emphasize the importance of the private economy echoing the central leadership, they often tend not to implement the central authorities' policies faithfully. Some of them like using punishment, fines and fees to replace service, supervision and regulation, while the market entities lack the means to safeguard their legal rights and interests. To improve the business environment has thus become an empty talk in some localities.
It is necessary to take strong measures to ensure pro-business policies are strictly implemented, so as to stabilize expectations. There should be an effective system to hold accountable those officials who compromise the central government's policies, especially those doing so for their own interests.