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Urgent Need to Guarantee Normal Economic Operation
In recent years, incidents of manufacturing and selling counterfeit products that seriously endanger the security of people's lives are horrible to people's minds, law-breaking criminal activities such as smuggling and trafficking in smuggled goods, tax evasion and tax fraud and illegal arbitrage of foreign exchange that disrupt social and economic order are really shocking. People loudly appeal: Great efforts must be made to solve the outstanding problem regarding rectification of the chaotic market order.
HALT BE PUT to CHAOTIC ORDER Law-abiding and faith-keeping enterprises are victimized by the rampage of faked and shoddy products. A survey by the department concerned shows that among the enterprises surveyed, at least 34.76 percent have seen their rights being infringed by counterfeit products. Gao Yuwen, board chairman of the Xinghuacun Fenjiu (a kind of spirit distilled in Fengyang) Group Company in Shanxi, told this reporter that in 1998, the Shuozhou fake liquor case caused great suffering to Shanxi's brewing industry, that year his company alone suffered a loss of over 100 million yuan of profit and tax.
The huge amount, multiple variety and wide scope of fake goods have seriously tarnished market reputation. Lu Guanqiu, board chairman of Wanxiang Group, said that in its frequent contacts with clients, big and small, in many countries around the world, for more than two decades, almost no contract dispute has ever occurred between Wanxiang and its clients, the various fraudulent conducts by domestic enterprises has caused his company tens of million yuan worth of economic loss.
An expert working in the financial field said that the "Zheng Baiwen incident" was not an individual phenomenon. The announcement on an accounting information quality sample survey recently published by the Ministry of Finance shows 155 of the 157 enterprises surveyed had the problem of false report on their profits. It is thus clear how serious the case of false figures and information is.
Breaking faith entails endless woe. Insufficient faith or credit crisis has become a big obstacle to China's current economic development. According to the analysis made by Zhao Haikuan, honorary director of the Financial Research Institute of the People's Bank of China, the serious deterioration of social credit has brought at least three negative effects on China's economic development: Firstly, making it impossible for the normal proceeding of the enterprise's commodity production and exchange. Secondly, credit deterioration makes it impossible for the normal progress of banking business. Without credit, it is impossible for the generation and development of fictitious capital and for the market economy to advance to a higher stage. When the case of cheating of export tax refund was serious last year, the department concerned had to temporarily suspend the issuance of export tax rebate, to some extent this affected China's export growth.
The problem of confused economic order has also damaged the country's prestige and the image of reform and opening and thus directly affected the attraction of foreign capital.
STRIKING at ACTS of DISRUPTING MARKET ORDERThe Party Central Committee and the State Council pay high attention to the rectification of market order. In his report to the Fourth Session of the Ninth National People's Congress (NPC), Premier Zhu Rongji put the vigorous rectification and standardization of the market order in an important position, he called for "vigorous promotion of honest and faith-keeping professional ethics and accelerating the establishment of a sound social credit system". This is an urgent, as well as a long-term, task.
It is the view of the department concerned that current rectification and standardization of market order should be carried out at least in the following eight aspects: 1. Persisting in striking at the manufacturing and selling of fake and shoddy products, tax evasion and tax fraud, illegal arbitrage of foreign exchange, smuggling and other criminal activities. 2. Rectifying the non-standard practice of the construction market. 3. Rectifying and standardizing financial order. 4. Enforcing strict financial and economic discipline. 5. Strengthening auditing supervision work. 6. Intensifying safety production management and safety supervision. 7. Attacking local acts of protectionism. And 8. Breaking departmental and professional monopoly and regional blockade. Establishing at the quickest possible speed a sound, nationally unified, standard and orderly market system featuring fair competition. Experts have pointed out that rectifying and standardizing market order cannot be accomplished at one stroke, we must first tackle problems which the masses strongly complain about and which is most harmful to the country, and treating both its principal and secondary aspects, this should be carried out step by step.
It should be said that there are many-sided reasons for the poor credit state, there are both macro and micro factors, both the unsound and imperfect aspects of system and mechanism, and loopholes in the management and operation of enterprises; there are both the internal problems of enterprises and the problems of external environment. Solutions of these problems need comprehensive analyses and overall treatment.
Some far-sighted entrepreneurs have pointed out that the key to establishing a sound social credit lies in the self-discipline of enterprises. It is necessary to overcome short-term actions and give thought to the long-range development of enterprises. Liu Yonghai, vice-chairman of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, said during the "two sessions" that credit has to be accumulated bit by bit, people and enterprises who keep good faith will be successful in the end.
Experts have pointed out that it is necessary to deal heavy blows to criminal acts of disrupting market order. It is imperative to rely on the rule of law to create a desirable market economic order. In the link of legislation, it is essential to establish and perfect a legal system for the socialist market economy, set up standard for inflicting heavier punishment, so that there is law to abide by when meting out severe blows; the link of law enforcement should also be conscientiously strengthened, particularly it is necessary to solve the problem regarding the weak and feeble administrative law enforcement and the replacement of control with fine. To rectify and standardize market order, it is also necessary to make institutional explorations. It is necessary to further expedite reform of the administrative examination and approval system, change government functions, improve government management and service, intensify the exercise of administration according to law and make administrative affairs known to the public. Doing so is conducive both to improving work efficiency and reducing unreasonable intervention in the market by government departments.
Rectification and standardization of market order affects the fundamental interests of the people, the sound development of the socialist market economy, the implementation of the "10th Five-year Plan and the attainment of objectives. At the beginning of the new century, we should step up efforts to do the work of rectifying and standardizing market order well and take a solid step toward the establishment of a nationally unified, fair competition, standard and orderly market system.
This is one of the commentaries written by Our Staff Reporter Wang Yantian on the rectification and standardization of market order. It is carried on the front page of People's Daily, April 2.
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