Speech at the Symposium of Entrepreneurs

Today, we are holding a symposium of entrepreneurs, firstly to have a heart-to-heart talk with you, secondly to cheer you on, and thirdly to listen to your opinions and suggestions on the current economic situation and enterprise reform and development during the “14th Five-Year Plan” period.

Attending today’s symposium are heads of state-owned enterprises, private entrepreneurs, managers of foreign-invested enterprises and enterprises funded by Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, and representatives of individual industrial and commercial households. Everyone is in different industries and different regions, has long-term experience in operation and management, and has their own observations and thoughts on enterprise development.

Just now, 7 representatives made very good speeches. Everyone talked about the situation realistically, and the suggestions were very targeted and of great reference value. I was very inspired by listening to them. Relevant departments should seriously study the opinions and suggestions put forward by entrepreneurs and formulate relevant policies and measures in a timely manner.

Below, combined with everyone’s speeches, I will make a few comments.

I. Protect and stimulate the vitality of market entities

Since the reform and opening up, my country has gradually established and continuously improved the socialist market economic system, the market system has continuously developed, and various market entities have grown vigorously. By the end of 2019, my country had 123 million market entities, including 38.58 million enterprises and 82.61 million individual industrial and commercial households. These market entities are the main participants in my country’s economic activities, the main providers of employment opportunities, and the main promoters of technological progress, playing a very important role in national development. Since the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, under the leadership of party committees and governments at all levels, various market entities have actively participated in the people’s war against the epidemic, united and cooperated, overcome difficulties, and struggled to save themselves, while providing strong material support for epidemic prevention and control. I would like to take this opportunity to express my heartfelt thanks to the vast number of state-owned enterprises, private enterprises, foreign-invested enterprises, enterprises funded by Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, and individual industrial and commercial households for their contributions to epidemic prevention and control and economic and social development!

Thanks to the joint efforts of the whole country, my country’s epidemic prevention and control has currently achieved major strategic results, and economic development has shown a stable and improving trend, being at the forefront of the world in both epidemic prevention and control and economic recovery. My country’s economy declined sharply in the first quarter, stabilized and rebounded in the second quarter, turning from negative to positive, with a growth of 3.2%. The GDP in the first half of the year fell by 1.6%, and the situation was better than expected. We must enhance confidence, face difficulties, strive to make up for the losses caused by the epidemic, and strive for good results in economic development throughout the year.

The new crown pneumonia epidemic has had a huge impact on my country’s economy and the world economy, and many market entities in my country are facing unprecedented pressure. Market entities are the carriers of economic power, and protecting market entities means protecting social productivity. As long as the green hills remain, there is no need to fear running out of firewood. We must do everything possible to protect market entities and accumulate basic strength for economic development.

The Party Central Committee clearly proposed to do a solid job in the “six stabilities” and implement the “six guarantees” tasks, and various regions and departments have issued a series of policies and measures to protect and support market entities. In the next step, we must increase policy support and stimulate the vitality of market entities, so that the vast number of market entities can not only survive normally but also achieve greater development.

First, implement policies to relieve burdens and benefit enterprises well. It is necessary to implement a more proactive and promising fiscal policy and a more prudent and flexible monetary policy, and enhance the pertinence and timeliness of macro policies. It is necessary to continue to reduce taxes and fees, reduce rents and interest rates, and ensure that various relief measures reach the grassroots directly and benefit market entities directly. It is necessary to strengthen financial support for market entities, develop inclusive finance, and effectively alleviate the difficult and expensive financing problems of enterprises, especially small, medium and micro enterprises. It is necessary to support marketable export goods to explore the domestic market. State-owned enterprises, especially central enterprises, should play a leading role and drive various upstream and downstream enterprises to tide over difficulties together. It is necessary to strengthen international cooperation and protect the industrial chain and supply chain.

Second, create a market-oriented, law-based, and internationalized business environment. It is necessary to implement the Civil Code and relevant laws and regulations well, protect the property rights and independent operating rights of state-owned, private, foreign and other various forms of ownership enterprises equally in accordance with the law, and improve the legal environment for fair competition among various market entities. It is necessary to protect the legitimate rights and interests of entrepreneurs in accordance with the law, strengthen the protection of property rights and intellectual property rights, form long-term stable development expectations, encourage innovation, tolerate failure, and create a strong atmosphere that encourages entrepreneurs to start businesses. It is necessary to promote the simplification of administration and decentralization, fully implement the negative list system for market access, and support enterprises to better participate in market cooperation and competition. It is necessary to implement the Foreign Investment Law well, relax market access, and promote trade and investment facilitation. Enterprises registered in China should be treated equally, and a fair competition environment should be improved.

Third, build a cordial and clean relationship between government and business. Leading cadres at all levels should interact with enterprises openly and aboveboard, understand the thoughts, difficulties and doubts of entrepreneurs. When formulating enterprise-related policies, they should listen more to the opinions and suggestions of entrepreneurs, and at the same time, resolutely prevent power-money transactions, commercial bribery and other problems from damaging the relationship between government and business and the business environment. It is necessary to give full play to the decisive role of the market in resource allocation, and better play the role of the government. The government is the setter of market rules and also the defender of market fairness, and should provide more high-quality public services. It is necessary to support entrepreneurs to focus without distractions, plan for the long term, run a lasting business with perseverance, take root in the Chinese market, and cultivate the Chinese market deeply.

Fourth, attach great importance to supporting the development of individual industrial and commercial households. My country has more than 82 million individual industrial and commercial households, driving employment of more than 200 million people. They are the largest number of market entities, the most direct service providers for people’s lives, and currently face the most practical difficulties. It is necessary to actively help individual industrial and commercial households solve problems in rent, taxes and fees, social security, financing, etc., and provide more direct and effective policy assistance.

II. Promote Entrepreneurship

Since the reform and opening up, a large number of courageous and innovative entrepreneurs have grown up, forming a team of Chinese entrepreneurs with distinct characteristics of the times, national characteristics, and world standards. For entrepreneurs to lead enterprises to overcome current difficulties and move towards a more brilliant future, they must constantly improve themselves in patriotism, innovation, integrity, social responsibility, and international vision, and strive to become a new force in building a new development pattern, building a modern economic system, and promoting high-quality development in the new era. Here, I would like to put forward a few points of hope.

First, I hope everyone will enhance their patriotic feelings. Enterprise marketing has no national boundaries, but entrepreneurs have a motherland. Excellent entrepreneurs must have a lofty sense of mission and a strong sense of responsibility to the country and the nation, closely integrate enterprise development with the prosperity of the country, the rejuvenation of the nation, and the happiness of the people, and take the initiative to take responsibility for the country and share the worries of the country. As the saying goes, “Those who benefit the country love it; those who harm the country hate it.” Patriotism is a glorious tradition of my country’s excellent entrepreneurs since modern times. From Zhang Jian in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, to Lu Zuofu and Chen Jiageng during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, to Rong Yiren and Wang Guangying after the founding of New China, etc., they are all models of patriotic entrepreneurs. Since the reform and opening up, a large number of patriotic entrepreneurs have also emerged in my country. Entrepreneurs have many ways to realize patriotism, but first and foremost is to run a first-class enterprise well, lead the enterprise to struggle hard, strive for first-class, and achieve development with better quality, higher efficiency, stronger competitiveness, and greater influence.

Second, I hope everyone will be courageous in innovation. Innovation is the first driving force for development. “Wealth is called great undertaking, and daily renewal is called great virtue.” Entrepreneurs’ innovation activities are the key to promoting the innovative development of enterprises. Famous entrepreneurs such as Edison and Ford in the United States, Siemens in Germany, and Matsushita Konosuke in Japan are all masters of management and masters of innovation. Since the reform and opening up, my country’s economic development has made world-renowned achievements, which is inseparable from the vigorous promotion of the spirit of innovation by the vast number of entrepreneurs. Innovation requires daring to take risks. Daring to be the first in the world is a quality that needs to be particularly promoted to overcome risks and challenges and achieve high-quality development. In the face of the great epidemic, all industries are struggling, but there are opportunities in crises, and only innovators win. Entrepreneurs should be explorers, organizers, and leaders of innovative development, be courageous in promoting production organization innovation, technological innovation, and market innovation, attach importance to technological research and development and human capital investment, effectively mobilize employee creativity, strive to build the enterprise into a powerful innovation entity, and achieve rebirth from the ashes in adversity.

Third, I hope everyone will be honest and law-abiding. “Sincerity is the way of heaven; thinking about sincerity is the way of man.” People cannot stand without credibility, and enterprises and entrepreneurs are even more so. The socialist market economy is a credit economy and a law-based economy. Entrepreneurs have to deal with all aspects, mobilize various resources such as people, money, and materials, and without integrity, it is difficult to move an inch. Due to various reasons, some enterprises still have many phenomena of dishonesty and even violation of laws and regulations in their business activities. Awareness of the rule of law, spirit of contract, and concept of abiding by contracts are important consciousness norms of modern economic activities, and are also important requirements of credit economy and law-based economy. Entrepreneurs should be models of honesty and law-abiding, and drive the improvement of the moral quality and civilization level of the whole society.

Fourth, I hope everyone will assume social responsibilities. I have said that enterprises not only have economic and legal responsibilities, but also social and moral responsibilities. Any enterprise existing in society is a social enterprise. Society is the stage for entrepreneurs to display their talents. Only entrepreneurs who sincerely repay society and earnestly fulfill their social responsibilities can truly gain social recognition and are entrepreneurs who meet the requirements of the times. In recent years, more and more entrepreneurs have devoted themselves to various public welfare undertakings. In the struggle against the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the vast number of entrepreneurs actively donated money and materials, provided volunteer services, and made important contributions, which is worthy of full affirmation. At present, employment pressure is increasing, and some workers are facing the risk of unemployment. Caring for employees is an important aspect of entrepreneurs fulfilling their social responsibilities. It is necessary to strive to stabilize jobs, care for employee health, and work with employees to tide over difficulties.

Fifth, I hope everyone will expand their international vision. How big your vision is determines how big your mind is. Since the reform and opening up, my country’s entrepreneurs have grown up in the international market, and their ability to use both international and domestic markets and resources has continuously improved. In the past 10 years, the pace of Chinese enterprises going out has accelerated significantly, participating in international market development more widely and deeply, and producing more and more world-class enterprises. In recent years, economic globalization has encountered countercurrents, and economic and trade frictions have intensified. Some enterprises have adjusted their industrial layout and global resource allocation based on considerations such as factor costs and trade environment. This is a normal production and operation adjustment. At the same time, we should see that China is the world’s most potential large market, with the most complete industrial supporting conditions. Entrepreneurs should base themselves in China, look at the world, improve their ability to grasp international market trends and demand characteristics, improve their ability to grasp international rules, improve their ability to develop international markets, improve their ability to guard against international market risks, drive enterprises to achieve better development in a higher level of opening up, and promote the domestic and international dual cycle.

III. Concentrate efforts on doing our own things well

I said at the national “Two Sessions” this year that facing the future, we must gradually form a new development pattern with the domestic grand cycle as the main body and the domestic and international dual cycles promoting each other. The main consideration is: the world today is undergoing major changes unseen in a century, and a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation is flourishing. Previously, under the external environment of the in-depth development of economic globalization, markets and resources “both ends abroad” played an important role in my country’s rapid development. Under the current external environment of rising protectionism, global economic downturn, and shrinking global markets, we must give full play to the advantages of the domestic ultra-large-scale market, add impetus to my country’s economic development by prospering the domestic economy and unblocking the domestic grand cycle, and drive the recovery of the world economy. It is necessary to improve the modernization level of the industrial chain and supply chain, vigorously promote technological innovation, accelerate the tackling of key core technologies, and create new advantages for future development.

I have emphasized many times that China’s door to opening up will not be closed, but will only open wider. Taking the domestic grand cycle as the main body is by no means closing the door to operate in a closed manner, but by unleashing the potential of domestic demand, better connecting the domestic market and the international market, and better utilizing both international and domestic markets and resources, to achieve stronger and sustainable development. In the long run, economic globalization is still the historical trend, and division of labor and cooperation, mutual benefit and win-win among countries are long-term trends. We must stand on the right side of history, insist on deepening reform, expanding opening up, strengthening opening up and cooperation in the field of science and technology, promoting the construction of an open world economy, and promoting the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind.

Starting next year, my country will enter the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, which is the first five years of embarking on a new journey of building a modern socialist country in an all-round way on the basis of building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way, and is of great significance. The Party Central Committee attaches great importance to the formulation of the “14th Five-Year Plan”, and relevant preparatory work is underway. Today, everyone has put forward many valuable opinions and suggestions on the formulation of the “14th Five-Year Plan”, please relevant parties seriously study and absorb them. I believe that through joint efforts, the vast number of enterprises and individual industrial and commercial households will surely play a greater role and achieve greater development in my country’s socialist modernization process.

Published at: Jul 26, 2020 · Modified at: Jan 14, 2026