Foreword: On Feb. 25, 2018, the Chinese Economists 50 Forum (CE50) 2018 Annual Meeting was held. The theme of this annual meeting is “From rapid growth to high-quality development”. More than economists attended the meeting, such as fifty WU Jinglian, WU Xiaoling, YI Gang, FANG Gang, LOU Jiwei, XU Shanda, QIAN Yingyi, LI Daokui, LI Yang, FANG Xinghai, CAO Yuanzheng, XIA Bin, HUANG Yiping, LI Xiaoxi, and HE Liping. Lawyer LIU Guangchao, President of Green Legal Global Alliance (GLGA) and Director of Beijing DOCVIT Law Firm, attended and addressed the meeting as a CE50 entrepreneur member from the legal circles. 

The meeting was presided over by YI Gang, a member of CE50 Academic Committee, Deputy Governor of the People’s Bank of China, and Deputy Director of the Central Finance and Economy Leading Team Office. 

FANG Gang, member of CE50 Academic Committee, Vice President of China Society of Economic Reform (CSER), and Director of National Economic Research Institute, on behalf of the Academic Committee, gave a Forum Work Report 2017, and made arrangements for the forum's main work this year. 2018 was the 40th anniversary of China’s reform and opening-up and the 20th anniversary of CE50, and the forum planned to carry out a series of commemorative activities, e.g. holding a symposium, and organizing the writing of The 20 Years of 50 People. 

According to the agenda of the annual meeting, WANG Yiming, Deputy Director of Development Research Center of the State Council, BAI Chong'en, Vice Dean of School of Economics and Management of Tsinghua University, HAN Jun, Deputy Director of the Central Finance and Economy Leading Team Office, HUANG Yiping, Vice Director of the National School of Development of Peking University, and LONG Guoqiang, Deputy Director of Development Research Center of the State Council, made a speech around the theme of the meeting. 

As an entrepreneur member from the legal circles, President Liu attended the CE50 annual meeting on invitation for nine consecutive years. At the meeting, from the perspective of legislation, Liu analyzed how to deal with the relationship between the government and the market, and how to systematically examine the land system, the tax system and the social security system. 

Below is the compiled speech of Liu. 

Change legislative concept, improve legislation level, and promote high-quality development of economy

Thank Governor YI Gang for giving me this opportunity to speak, and I really cherish this moment. As a person from the legal circles, I would like to share some of my thoughts on today's topic “From Rapid Growth to High-quality Development” from the perspective of legislation. 

Generally speaking, high-quality development of economy cannot be achieved without the protection and promotion of laws and, fundamentally speaking, cannot be achieved without high-level legislation. Objectively speaking, our country's laws are getting more and more, and our legislation has a problem of “departmental segmentation”; the feasibility review and demonstration for legislation is not enough, and the overall coordination is not enough either; besides, our concept and level of legislation are not advanced enough, and it needs to be evaluated, examined and improved on the whole. The following is a brief analysis from three aspects, accompanied by some suggestions. 

First of all, I’d like to talk about my understanding of high-quality development of economy. Personally, I think, high-quality development of economy should include five substandards and two general standards. The five substandards are the advancedness of the model, the efficiency of operation, the orderliness of the market, the rationality of the structure and the controllability of risk. The two general standards are the sustainability of development and the overall competitiveness. From this perspective, the objective effect of legislation should be conducive to the implementation of these standards, especially to efficient operation, orderly market, and controllable risk. In the process of legislation, we should take these factors into special consideration. 

Second, on how to solve these problems currently existing in our legislation, I offer three pieces of advice. 1. Be prudent in legislation. In the process of legislation, we should follow a principle that has been advocated in our profession -- being "modest and restrained", that is, legislation ought to be careful, be modest, and be reasonably restrained, instead of being too much, too fast, or excessive; at the same time, a law can't be modified often and easily, and we shall ensure the seriousness of the law, consider the necessity of legislation, and pursue the feasibility of the law; 2. Be coordinated in legislation. At present, our legislation has a serious problem of departmentalization, and a lot of legislations have been based on the local interests of a department or the interests or needs of some people; In fact, some of the enforcement dilemmas and regulatory dilemmas that we now face are the result of the departmentalization of legislation, for example, the regulation of capital management industry, regulation of government guiding fund, regulation of PPP development, and standardization of collective land's entering the market. So, we should strengthen the coordination and overall planning of legislation; 3. Attach great importance to high-order legislation and give full play to the leading role of the NPC and its Standing Committee in legislation. We should pay special attention to the NPC and its Standing Committee’s systematic evaluation and examination of the legislative status, legislative effect and other issues, while strengthening legislative planning, legislative demonstration and legislative review. 

Third, as to the key concerns on legislation, I hope the following four suggestions could be considered as key points. 1. Solve one relationship, i.e. the relationship between government and market. The market plays a "decisive role" in resource allocation, which had been explicitly proposed in the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the CPC, and was more accurate, more profound and more thorough than the previous "fundamental role". Whereas, how to really implement and put it into place is a major project, which requires vision, wisdom and breakthrough, and the whole nation should make joint, unremitting efforts; 2. Do a good job of “two protections“, i.e. Protection of Competition and Protection of Innovation. Protection of Competition includes the protection of the dominant position, protection of competition opportunities and protection of property stability & security, and Protection of Innovation includes protecting innovation ideas, protecting innovation technology, and protecting innovation models. The “two protections“ are the lifeblood of high-quality development of economy; 3. Intensively and systematically review three systems: land system, tax system and social security system. The reform of land system has become a major difficult problem in our deepening reform; the tax system and even the supporting fiscal system directly affect the government's behavioral orientation and economic development course; and social security system (including household registration, social insurance, family planning, housing, medical treatment, education, transportation, etc.) is the basic guarantee for giving people a sense of happiness, a sense of gain, a sense of gratification, and a sense of security, and is also the standard for truly testing and judging the social governance level; 4. Lay emphasis on four "shifts", that is, shifting from paying more attention to things and technology to paying more attention to people and talents, shifting from paying more attention to information to credit, shifting from paying more attention to financial capital innovation to the real economy, and shifting from paying more attention to the domestic to domestic-international integration. Only such shifts can make legislation closer to the deep demand of economic development, truly stimulate the potential vitality of economic development, grasp the real law of economic development, and finally realize high-quality development of economy. 

Above are my personal views and thoughts, open to criticism and correction.

Thank you.