Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, March 18th Title: Make changes and "play the edge ball"? There are new measures to break down local protection and market segmentation

Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhao Wenjun

"Limit the owner ownership form and place of registration" "Forced investment and operation locally or establish branches"...Focus on the outstanding performance of improper intervention in market competition, the State Administration for Market Regulation held a press conference on the 18th to introduce the relevant situation of the "Implementation Measures for the Regulations on Fair Competition Review" recently issued, and respond to social concerns in response to problems that have been strongly reflected by business entities.

Clarify the red line and bottom line

The "Regulations on Fair Competition Review" implemented in August last year clearly requires that when drafting laws, administrative regulations, local regulations, rules, normative documents and specific policy measures involving operators' economic activities, fair competition review should be carried out. The introduction of the implementation measures is a further refinement and clarification of the regulations.

Zhou Zhigao, Director of the Competition Coordination Department of the State Administration for Market Regulation, introduced that the implementation measures have refined the 19 review standards in the four aspects established by the regulations item by item, stipulated the content that must not be included in the 66 policy measures, and clarified the specific manifestations of various prohibited provisions.

For example, the implementation measures will not limit the provisions on operating, purchasing or using goods or services provided by specific operators, and will be refined into clear requirements or implicitly, limiting the form of operator ownership, registration place or setting other unreasonable conditions, setting up unreasonable project databases and catalogs, and limiting transactions through reward or punitive measures. It covers the main types of limited transaction problems found in current regulatory enforcement, so that each region and department can compare and understand and grasp them one by one in the review work.

According to reports, the fair competition review system involves a wide range of scope. The formulation of policy and measures involving the economic activities of operators such as market access and exit, industrial development, investment promotion, government procurement, bidding, qualification standards, and supervision and law enforcement requires fair competition review.

Carrelize vicious competition for investment promotion

At present, enterprises have reported more about local investment and operation in some places or set up branches. In this regard, the Implementation Measures clearly stipulate that local investment or establishment of branches shall not be used as a necessary condition for production and operation, and disguised compulsory behavior shall be carried out.

In the field of government procurement and bidding, the implementation measures stipulate that the priority purchase of goods provided by local operators shall not be required, and the areas and registered addresses of operators shall not be used as bidding and bonus conditions, and shall not be used to evaluate the credit rating of enterprises, nor shall they set unreasonable public announcement time and response time.

The Fair Competition Review Regulations prohibit the illegal and irregular provisions of selective and differentiated financial rewards or subsidies to specific operators. Some places make adjustments and "play the edge" when introducing policies such as economic promotion and investment promotion, while others are "one-size-fits-all" and prohibit financial rewards and subsidies.

"Both practices are inaccurate." Zhou Zhigao introduced that on the one hand, the implementation measures stipulate that financial rewards or subsidies shall not be implemented on the condition that foreign operators will move their registered place to the local area, pay taxes locally, and include them in local statistics; on the other hand, they clarify what a "specific operator" is, that is, "a certain or part of the operators determined directly or in disguise in policy measures, except for those determined through fair, reasonable, objective and clear and non-exclusive conditions."

Zhou Zhigao said that this is not only conducive to curbing the vicious competition behavior of attracting investment, but also conducive to strengthening the coordination of competition policies and industrial policies, promoting the transformation of industrial policies from differentiation, selectivity to universalization and functionality, and enhancing the effectiveness of policy implementation.

Strengthening rigid constraints in the system

How to prevent problems such as "empty position" of responsibility, "formal" review, and "idle" of the system? The implementation measures have made special provisions in three aspects: responsibility implementation and system incentives, problem discovery and verification and handling, supervision and rectification and accountability.

If the State Administration for Market Regulation and local market supervision departments at or above the county level are further clarified in promoting the implementation of the fair competition review system, provisions will be made on the policy and measure drafting units to strictly implement the fair competition review responsibilities, and requires the establishment and improvement of a fair competition review mechanism, and the establishment of special institutions and personnel to ensure that responsibilities are clear and responsibilities are in place.

In response to policies and measures that violate the provisions of the regulations, the implementation measures have been further clarified. Any unit or individual can report to the market supervision department, determine the responsibilities of market supervision departments at all levels, and put forward clear requirements for the time limit for the reporting processing.

In the next step, the State Administration for Market Regulation will organize and announce the reporting acceptance methods of market supervision departments of provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government, further open up reporting channels and promptly respond to the concerns of business entities.

It is revealed that the State Administration for Market Regulation is speeding up the revision of the "Regulations on Suppressing the Abuse of Administrative Power and Excluding and Restricting Competition", further improving law enforcement procedures, strengthening accountability, and enhancing the pertinence and effectiveness of law enforcement. The relevant draft will be solicited publicly from the public in a timely manner.