Ask for Advice, Explore the Way: The Reform Views of an Industrial and Commercial Administration Chief

Author: He Xian'an / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2004-05-01
Features: Three exclusions and two negative factors Reform and opening-up is a correct policy that aligns with the fundamental interests of the entire people and was initially wholeheartedly supported by the public. However, in recent years, various chaotic situations in socio-economic life and the corruption that arose from them have, to some extent, dampened the public's enthusiasm for reform, leaving them in great confusion. This has made the already complex and arduous task of deepening reform even more challenging. It is impossible to imagine deepening reform without the heartfelt support and active participation of the broad masses. The importance and urgency of rectification and adjustment lie in this. We must use the actual results of rectification and adjustment to enhance the reputation of reform and win the trust and support of the public. There are two negative factors that must be overcome. First, it is essential to emphasize discipline, prioritizing the overall interest, and upholding the authority of the Central Committee and the State Council. Leadership must be strengthened, ensuring that orders are followed and prohibitions are respected. No longer can we resort to repeated reminders. In particular, law enforcement agencies must emphasize that laws must be strictly followed, violations must be severely punished, and those who break the law must be held accountable. In recent years, the central government has appropriately decentralized power and recognized the diversification of interests, which was originally an important aspect of reform. However, due to the neglect of ideological and political work, discipline has weakened. Localities and departments, driven by their own interests, have ignored the overall interest, strengthening local and departmental protectionism. The famous "red light" theory and "red line" theory were widely spread as reform experiences in this climate. As a result, there was further expansion despite pressure, more control led to inflation, a second wave of company fever after cleanup and adjustment, and the phrase "slow down" during the second round of cleanup. Selling permits was explained as developing the economy, and criminals might be protected as heroes. Law enforcement agencies, due to the fragmentation of authority, ignored their sacred mission to enforce the law, instead resorting to flexibility, treating people but not themselves, and dealing with outsiders but not insiders. This was a major reason for the worsening chaos in the economic sector in recent years. To address this issue, in addition to strengthening discipline as mentioned earlier, it is necessary to establish the constitutional status of independent exercise of administrative enforcement power as soon as possible. It is unclear which level or department first proposed this, nor has it been when it began, but "dividing the spoils" has gained "legal" justification and various division ratios. While rewards and punishments should be strict and rewards should be given based on merit, why are they linked to stolen money, with rewards and profits retained based on the amount collected? This inappropriately stimulates unhealthy enthusiasm, compounded by the fact that our regulations are already imperfect and highly flexible. As a result, there is "punishment instead of punishment," leading to the intensification of profit-seeking among law enforcement agencies and the weakening of cooperative awareness. You have "market rules," I manage "price policies"; you pursue "disciplinary violations," he investigates "bribery"; you cite "monopoly regulations," I refer to "smuggling penalties"; you impose penalties for "speculation," I classify it as "fraud." On one hand, there is a rush to make decisions on the handling of confiscated assets, while on the other, case files are passed around like toys. Let alone the various unspoken phenomena that arise from this. A considerable number of criminals have thus escaped justice. It is no surprise that a vicious cycle of "committing crimes, punishing crimes, punishing crimes, and doing crimes" has emerged. This kind of enthusiasm that sacrifices the dignity of the law is unacceptable. Eliminating the above two negative factors is enough to ensure that the rectification and adjustment policy does not become an empty slogan. The public is watching us with trust, and we must not disappoint them. The postal and communication equipment industry, now a major industry in Fuyang, developed from a private enterprise founded by Fang Xuemu, who later became an eighth National Committee member. Fang Xuemu, originally an employee of the Fuyang Post Office, retired prematurely at the age of 42 in 1982 to allow his rural son to join the post office and secure what was considered the "iron rice bowl" in China. He raised 70,000 yuan, rented a 9-square-meter shed, hired 8 family members of workers, and established Fuyang's first private postal and communication equipment factory. Leveraging his connections as a former supply and marketing official, he filled gaps, picked up abandoned projects from large factories, emphasized quality and credibility, streamlined procedures, and faced the market directly. After ten years of hard work, he became the owner of Zhejiang Bell Communication Group Co., Ltd., with tens of millions in assets and tens of thousands of square meters of production facilities. The success of Fang Xuemu's path inspired many who were influenced by and trained by him to follow suit, leading to the rapid development of the postal and communication equipment industry into a major emerging industry in Fuyang. The products are comprehensive, including optical cables, and the sales network covers the entire country. By the end of 1997, statistics showed that there were 144 such enterprises in Fuyang, with a registered capital of 300 million yuan, employing 8,751 people, and generating 2.06 billion yuan in annual output value, making it a pillar industry. Other industries, such as paper and paper products, hardware, and sports equipment, have also developed into a "private army," enriching the local economy and gaining national recognition, with many products exported overseas. Of course, development is not without challenges. People who have lived in fear for decades are particularly sensitive, and even a small article in the newspaper or a news report on TV, no matter how minor, can touch their nerves. Take Fang Xuemu, for example. In the year of opposing bourgeois liberalization, he probably sensed the tide turning and, at a meeting, generously offered to donate his entire enterprise to a foundation. Some people are always afraid of "aftermaths," so they go to great lengths to register their businesses as collective enterprises to show "common prosperity." These people share a common secret: wearing a "red hat" not only brings immediate benefits but also allows them to wash themselves clean if policies change. Moreover, our policies have long been guided by the belief that "public is more sacred than private." Collective enterprises, school-run businesses, welfare enterprises, etc., can enjoy tax exemptions, and who wouldn't be happy to run such public-ownership enterprises? And they can change their names year after year. Because our policies prohibit private businesses in certain so-called special industries, people are forced to lie and set up fake enterprises. Additionally, our credit policies lend to public entities but not private ones, and the personal career prospects of financial workers lead entrepreneurs to wear a "Marxist" mask to survive and thrive. All these factors are both obstacles to the healthy development of the private economy and reasons for the decline of the public economy. The Fuyang Municipal Bureau of Industry and Commerce has conducted two cleanups of these phenomena. The first was in the first half of 1988, when red hats were removed from 150 fake collective enterprises. The second was in 1997, when a comprehensive restructuring was implemented,ing 964 collective enterprises and converting them into private enterprises. Fuyang's ability to escape poverty and achieve what is considered "modest prosperity" today is an undeniable fact due to the development of the private economy. By the end of 1997, Fuyang had 2,397 private enterprises and 18,143 individual businesses, with a registered capital of 1.70925 billion yuan, generating 9 billion yuan in industrial output value, paying 100 million yuan in taxes, and employing 99,663 people. In today's environment where urban workers are being laid off and unemployment is increasing, and with two-thirds of the country's 2,200 counties relying on central government subsidies, Fuyang's 610,000 population has 100,000 employed in individual and private industries, paying 100 million yuan in taxes. The economic and political significance of this is self-evident. The private economy can be freely developed in socialist China and hold the position it has today because the ruling Communist Party of China has finally recognized the objective reality of "China being in the primary stage of socialism" and has acknowledged that this stage will last for a very long historical period, thus formulating a series of policies that allow and suit its development. However, in the end, without specific functional departments to properly implement good policies, things will remain as difficult as many things in China, where it seems everyone is in charge but no one is, making development a challenge. Administrative and commercial management has been pushed to the forefront in this historical opportunity. The waters of the Fuchun River in Zhejiang flow endlessly. The beautiful Fuchun River records the historical changes of Zhejiang Fuyang: the earliest to surge with the wave of reform; the earliest to boldly propose vigorously developing individual and private economies; the earliest to regard individual and private economies as the driving force for revitalizing the local economy. It is precisely because of such "earliest" achievements that Fuyang's GDP reached 10.19 billion yuan in 2000, with fiscal revenue exceeding 700 million yuan, 80% of which came from the non-public sector, with results that are undeniable. The rapid development of individual and private economies in Fuyang has required tremendous efforts from local administrative and commercial departments. Their guidance and cultivation have enabled individual and private business owners in Fuyang to achieve prosperity earlier. The prosperous people of Fuyang are thinking about what? In today's market economy, when people complain about a credit crisis in society, Fuyang has once again taken the lead in building the "credit project" for individual and private enterprises. During an interview in Fuyang, individual and private business owners there expressed immense confidence in their credit. The "Enterprise Credit Publicity Project" launched by the Fuyang Branch of the Hangzhou Bureau of Industry and Commerce has generated extremely strong social. Experts believe it is a creative exploration for Chinese enterprises to enter the market economy and achieve a standardized market order. In the current process of rectifying and regulating the market economy, what can the "Enterprise Credit Publicity Project" bring to enterprises? What role can it play in regional economic development? What contribution can it make to society? Journalists, a series of questions, interviewed He Xian'an, the head of the Fuyang Municipal Bureau of Industry and Commerce and the advocate of the "Enterprise Credit Publicity Project."
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