Strategy shores up confidence for investors

Market prioritized

The continuous market liberalization has taken place under China's economic governance principle that the market will play the decisive role in resource allocation while the government should exercise its functions better.

The principle underlines minimizing the government's direct intervention in economic activities to give a full play to the strengths of the market, with effective incentives generated from property rights, free flow of production factors, flexible prices, fair and orderly competition and business survival based on competition, experts said.

It is part of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialist Economy with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, which took shape in 2017 and has served since to guide the country's economic governance.

Xi recently called for Shenzhen, Guangdong province, known as the testing ground for China's reform and opening-up, to deepen reform on all fronts to establish a socialist market economy system of a higher standard.

The city should test reforms in such key areas as promoting market-based allocation of resources, optimizing the business environment and building a high-level open economic system, Xi said at a celebration in Shenzhen on Oct 14 marking the 40th anniversary of the country's first special economic zone.

With bolder moves in reform and opening-up set to unleash the growth potential of China's economy, more foreign businesses will tap the fast-growing market under the country's new "dual-circulation" development pattern, whereby domestic and foreign markets will reinforce each other with the domestic market as the mainstay, experts said.

Zhu Min, head of Tsinghua University's National Institute of Financial Research and a former deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund, said deepening reform and opening-up to strengthen business exchanges, both within the domestic market and with international markets, lies at the core of China's pursuit of building the new pattern.

One major task under the pattern is to meet people's demand for goods of higher quality, a process that offers huge development opportunities for foreign businesses, Zhu said.

For instance, Saint-Gobain SA, the French industrial conglomerate, plans to enhance its market presence in China's central and western regions, as well as the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, for better access to these fast-growing regional markets.

Javier Gimeno, Saint-Gobain's senior vice-president, said many opportunities had sprung from these regions' surging demand for greener building materials, automobile glass, high-end chemicals and other industrial goods, amid an accelerated urbanization pace and smart city development.

Chi Fulin, president of the China Institute for Reform and Development, said international standards have become benchmarks in China's market-oriented reforms, making it easier for global companies to thrive under the country's reform agenda.

Eugene Qian, chairman of UBS Securities, said foreign investment banks are "well-positioned" to participate in the initial public offerings on Shanghai's science and technology STAR Market, which operates under more internationalized and liberalized rules. "We believe that more foreign investment banks will join to sponsor deals on the STAR Market in the future."