Editor's note
Jointly promote global development and build a common future. From November 18 to 19, 2023, it will be hosted by Chinese Renmin University and co-organized by Chinese Renmin University and Tongzhou District People**The first "Tongzhou Global Development Forum".Successfully held. Founding Secretary-General of the Asian Financial Cooperation Association and former full-time vice president of the China Banking AssociationYang ZaipingInvited to participate in the second academic dialogue: "New Development Concept and Community with a Shared Future for Mankind". The content of the speech is now compiled and published as follows:
Yang Zaiping, Founding Secretary-General of the Asian Financial Cooperation Association and former full-time vice president of the China Banking Association.
Thank you for inviting me to participate in such a high-level forum, and I would like to focus on one issueIt is to build an olive-shaped societyThis is a very important issue facing us at present and in the future, and it can be said that it is an important issue for China to implement the new development concept in the future, and it is also a consensus between China and foreign countries in ancient and modern times. In the past, when we elaborated on this issue, we often quoted the saying that "those who have constant birth have perseverance". If the majority of the country's citizens have a relatively good property and can have no worries about food and clothing, then the country will be relatively stable. Only when a country's middle class reaches a certain size and forms an olive-shaped structure will the country be stable for a long time. The starting point of China's reform and opening up was poverty and backwardness, and there was a serious shortage of materials at that time. After reform and opening up, we have solved the problems of shortage and poverty, but we are also faced with the new problem of unbalanced and inadequate development. How to solve this problem? In 2013, the party and the state officially issued a document proposing to expand the middle-income group and build an olive-shaped distribution structureThis is how the official document says it, in fact, it is the construction of an olive-shaped society. Since then, every major speech and economic reform has also mentioned the construction of an olive-shaped society, addressing the problem of uneven and inadequate development. Over the years, an important indicator of our development is the Gini coefficient, the world's relatively large economy, among the top 50 Gini coefficients, China ranks 27th, but it cannot fully reflect the problem. At present, the social structure of our country is a thin pyramid structure, and there is still a big gap compared with the olive-shaped social structure. It can be said that there is still a long way to go to build an olive-shaped society, the established policy of the party, or the idealized consensus of ancient and modern times. How to build an olive-shaped society? I think from an academic point of view, and also from the practice of the party's leadership of socialism with Chinese characteristics, to sum up the lessons and lessons, we need to deal with the five pairs of relationships:First, it is necessary to properly handle the relationship between the first rich and the common wealth. The official documents of the party and the state have been emphasizing that it is not going hand in hand, we sayExpanding the middle-income group is not a retrospective denial of letting some people get rich first, so there is a sequence. We are now emphasizing common prosperity, and if it is extremely biased, it will not conform to the law of economic development, so this issue must be handled well. Second, it is necessary to properly handle the relationship between expanding China and achieving common prosperity. We are now emphasizing common prosperity, and the main direction of attack is still to expand the middle-income group, and we must make the middle-income group bigger. The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the important speech of the general secretary of the Communist Party of China are emphasizing that the proportion of middle-income groups will increase significantly by 2035. Common prosperity must have a main direction of attack, that is, the expansion of China. The third is to properly handle the relationship between wealth creation and wealth distribution. We say that making a cake is a cake and dividing a cake, and the cake must first grow bigger and bigger, and then the cake can be distributed. We need to have incentives to make sure the cake is biggerThe so-called argument of robbing the rich and helping the poor, dividing the property of the rich, re-attacking the local tyrants, and dividing the land, these arguments should not be used, and we should ensure that the cake continues to grow bigger, and under this premise, we should expand the middle-income group towards the goal of common prosperity. Fourth, properly handle the relationship between efficiency and fairness. Both need to be balanced to ensure efficiency while distinguishing between fairness and equality. True fairness has a certain degree of efficiency, so the relationship between the two must be handled well, and they must complement each other and complement each other. Fairness cannot simply be equated with equality, some inequalities but fairness, such as distribution according to work, high risk and high return on investment, this inequality is fair, but also conducive to efficiency improvement. Fifth, it is necessary to properly handle the relationship between protecting legitimate enrichment and punishing illegal enrichment. On the one hand, it is necessary to protect the rights and interests of those who have become legally rich, and to protect individuals and economic entities that have become legally rich. Now the wealth creation includes business organizationsIf modern society wants to become a middle-class and middle-income group, it must rely on the continuous innovation of a large number of small and micro enterprises, which are an important carrier for middle-income groups. There are 52 million small and micro groups in China, 33 million in the United States, we have 30 people with 1 small and micro enterprise, and the United States has less than 10 people with 1 small and micro enterprise. Small and micro enterprises are about the same as GDP per capita, which is also 1 5 of our current income level. Legal entrepreneurs are the leaders in expanding the middle-income group and moving towards common prosperity, and they have taken certain risks, so they have been emphasizing the protection of entrepreneurs. On the other hand, it is necessary to punish the subjects and behaviors of illegal enrichment. If this is not done, there will be two consequences: bad money drives out good money, and if illegal enrichment is tolerated, everyone will get rich illegally. If we do not crack down hard, it will encourage the expansion of hatred of the rich in society. If a society generally hates the rich, how can common prosperity be achieved? How to create an olive-shaped society? We must be firm in both hands, and only by doing both well can we form the positive energy of everyone in the society to legally create wealth, so that the goal of building an olive-shaped society under the new development concept can be successfully realized. (This article is based on shorthand and has not been reviewed by the author.) ）