According to Xinhua News Agency, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, President of the State, Chairman of the Central Military Commission, and Director

The meeting pointed out that the basic requirements for advancing the construction of a unified national market are \five unifications and one openness,\ namely, unifying the basic market system, unifying the market infrastructure, unifying the government's behavior standards, unifying market supervision and law enforcement, unifying the factor resource market, and continuously expanding internal and external openness.

The meeting emphasized that in order to advance the construction of a unified national market in depth, it is necessary to focus on key and difficult issues, regulate corporate low-price disorderly competition in accordance with laws and regulations, guide enterprises to improve product quality, and promote the orderly exit of backward production capacity; standardize government procurement and bidding, and strengthen the fairness review of bidding results; standardize local investment attraction, and enhance the disclosure of investment attraction information; focus on promoting the integrated development of domestic and foreign trade, smooth the path of export to domestic sales, and cultivate a group of high-quality domestic and foreign trade enterprises; continue to carry out special actions to standardize enterprise law enforcement, and improve the fiscal and tax system, statistical accounting system, and credit system that are conducive to market unification; guide cadres to establish and practice the correct view of achievements, and improve the high-quality development assessment system and the cadre performance assessment system.

Shanghai Jiao Tong University Antai College of Economics and Management, Deputy Researcher at the China Development Research Institute, Zhong Huiyong, said to the reporters of The Paper, \Five unifications, one openness\ is the core framework for building a unified national market. By unifying the market's basic systems, market infrastructure, government behavior standards, market supervision and law enforcement, and the market for factor resources, it fundamentally breaks local protection and market segmentation, achieving the free flow and efficient allocation of resources and factors across the country. Continuously expanding internal and external openness, not only firmly welcomes private and foreign-funded enterprises to participate in domestic market competition under the unified national market, but also continuously promotes the high-standard docking of domestic and international markets, further enhancing the ability of Chinese enterprises to participate in international competition.

Teng Tai, Dean of the Wanbo New Economic Research Institute, believes that the construction of a unified national market is an important measure to deepen market-oriented reforms and expand openness. By unifying market access, fair competition, and other institutional rules, it breaks down local protection, clears blockages in domestic economic circulation, and enables production factors, goods, and services to flow more efficiently nationwide, reducing institutional transaction costs and avoiding involution competition, thus transforming the market potential of our country's 1.4 billion people into tangible development momentum.

Governing corporate low-price disorderly competition according to laws and regulations.

For some time, the \involution-style\ competition among enterprises has led to a series of problems. \There are many factors leading to 'involution-style' competition,\ Pan Helin, a member of the Expert Committee on Information and Communication Economics at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, told the reporter from The Paper. First, oversupply, some products have low manufacturing barriers and low entry thresholds, leading to a large amount of production capacity accumulation. Second, regional entry barriers, some enterprises find it difficult to enter regional markets and encounter local protectionism. Third, some enterprises in certain industries have gained a dominant position, such as some enterprises in the platform economy who have gained relatively strong say.

此次会议强调了“Governing corporate low-price disorderly competition according to laws and regulations.，引导企业提升产品品质，推动落后产能有序退出”，钟辉勇认为，全国统一大市场建设可以通过“优胜劣汰”的市场机制来治理“内卷”。“当地方间的市场壁垒被打破，那些具有创新能力、成本得到有效控制的企业，可以更好地参与市场竞争，这会挤压低效、低质企业的生存空间，进而推动落后产能的有序退出。”同时，在统一市场中，资本和人才会流向最具创新能力和潜力的企业。当企业无法再依赖地方保护和低价时，唯一的出路就是“提升产品品质”，进行技术和模式创新，跳出“内卷”泥潭。

Teng Tai pointed out that, first of all, market regulatory departments, industry associations, and leading enterprises should actively play their roles in helping businesses escape the \prisoner's dilemma.\ Secondly, the business philosophy and competitive strategy of Chinese enterprises need to be accelerated in upgrading, and they should quickly equip themselves with the \engine of innovation.\ Finally, local governments should also quickly stop the \involutionary blood transfusion,\ and macro policies should also stimulate the source of consumption.

Regulate government actions

In response to this meeting's emphasis on regulating certain government actions, including procurement and bidding, as well as investment attraction, Zhong Huiyong believes that this is aimed at addressing several long-standing issues that have hindered fair market competition, including local protectionism, unfair competition, and local governments' excessive promises of tax rebates and financial subsidies in their scramble for projects.

Zhong Huiyong stated that there are still some directions that can be focused on for advancement in the next step. First, it is essential to reform the performance assessment system of local governments, \This is the most fundamental.\ The assessment methods that primarily focus on \GDP growth rate\ and \scale of investment attraction\ must be fundamentally changed to a more comprehensive assessment system that pays more attention to the quality of development, business environment, improvement of people's livelihood, and the health of fiscal conditions.

Secondly, continue to advance the reform of fiscal powers and expenditure responsibilities. Straighten out the fiscal relationship between the central and local governments, ensuring that local governments have a stable and sustainable source of finance, reducing their dependence on \land finance\ and excessive investment attraction, and fundamentally reducing their motivation for engaging in cutthroat competition.

Thirdly, fully implement digitalization and transparency. All government procurement, bidding, and investment promotion policies and agreements, except for confidential information, are fully disclosed on a unified digital platform for supervision by society and the media. At the same time, utilize AI and other artificial intelligence technologies to automatically identify and warn of abnormal bidding results and unreasonable preferential policies.

At present, some local governments have formed a \policy competition\ phenomenon in their support for certain industries. Zhong Huiyong pointed out that \policy competition\ is essentially a more advanced form of local protectionism and market segmentation. \From the content of the meeting, there is a very clear and strong signal to adjust this phenomenon,\ said Zhong Huiyong. Among them, \unifying the scale of government behavior\ is the most direct signal, requiring local governments' actions and policy formulation to be conducted within a unified framework. They cannot act on their own for local interests, arbitrarily \adding\ preferential policies, and disrupting the national unity. \Regulating local investment attraction\ directly points to the core means of \policy competition\. Regulation means that investment attraction needs to be more transparent and compliant, and cannot use distortive policies as a means. \Guiding cadres to establish and practice the correct view of achievements\ and \improving the high-quality development assessment and evaluation system\ are to change the \指挥棒\ of local officials.

Pan and Lin pointed out that the \policy competition\ is actually the differentiated policies offered by various regions in order to retain businesses, which contradicts the overall principle of a unified large market, and it will be necessary to gradually unify and correct this in the future.

Additionally, the meeting emphasized the continuous implementation of special actions to standardize law enforcement involving enterprises, and the improvement of a fiscal and tax system, statistical accounting system, and credit system that are conducive to a unified market.

Zhong Huiyong believes that the focus of \regulating enterprise-related law enforcement\ should be \regulation\, with the core goal of creating a stable, transparent, and predictable market and legal environment for businesses, rather than increasing the burden on enterprises. As long as the requirements of \five unifications, one openness\ are strictly followed, adhering to market principles and the rule of law, enterprises can gain broad development space.