Ministry of Finance: Promote financial reform management and accelerate the construction of a high-level socialist market economy system.

Finance is crucial to governing the country and ensuring national security, and plays an important role in promoting high-quality development and the construction of a Chinese-style modernization. The proposal for formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development, approved at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, clearly requires the active role of fiscal policy. How will we play an active role in fiscal policy during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period? How will fiscal policy be used to focus on building a strong domestic market and accelerating the construction of a high-level socialist market economy system? Xinhua News Agency interviewed Lian Fuan, Party Secretary and Minister of Finance. Q: Building a high-level socialist market economy system is an important guarantee for the Chinese-style modernization. The Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China has made arrangements for accelerating the construction of a high-level socialist market economy system. What aspects will finance focus on to play its role? A: Establishing a high-level socialist market economy system requires the formation of an economic order that is both "flexible" and effectively regulated. Fiscal macro-control must be "moderate" to ensure the "effectiveness" of market mechanisms and hence the vitality of micro-main bodies. Finance will focus on directing funds towards the public domain, leaning towards areas with strong externalities and high social benefits, to address market failures. It will refrain from direct allocation of resources by the government and direct intervention in microeconomic activities, fully harnessing the decisive role of the market in resource allocation. During the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, we will adhere to reform empowerment and management potential, focusing on four aspects: 1. Focus on optimizing resource allocation, improving the scientific management level of finance, strengthening the coordination of fiscal resources and budgets, deepening zero-based budgeting reforms, breaking the fixed expenditure pattern, optimizing the structure of fiscal expenditures, and improving the efficiency of fund utilization. 2. Focus on efficiency and fairness, actively leveraging the role of taxation in promoting high-quality development, social equity, and market unification, improving the local tax and direct tax systems, and maintaining a reasonable macro tax burden level. 3. Focus on mobilizing "two enthusiasms", optimizing the relationship between central and local finances, appropriately strengthening central responsibilities and increasing central fiscal expenditure proportion, improving the fiscal transfer payment system, and increasing local financial autonomy. 4. Focus on coordinating development and security, with a focus on accelerating the establishment of a long-term effective government debt management mechanism that is compatible with high-quality development, developing in debt and developing through debt, and enhancing fiscal sustainability.