A private economy development bureau was recently set up under the National Development and Reform Commission, China's top economic planner, to strengthen policy coordination and facilitate the implementation of adopted policies.

The role of the new department is mainly to strengthen services and promote the development of the private economy and private investment. It also aims to establish a regular communication and exchange mechanism with private enterprises, help them solve major problems, and support them to enhance international competitiveness.

The bureau does have certain management functions, but it is not to manage private enterprises. Instead, it is there because the private economy involves a wide range of areas and needs close policy cooperation among departments. The establishment of the special department can better play the functions of overall coordination, comprehensive policy implementation, and improve the efficiency and quality of promoting the private economy.

In the past few years, apart from structural and cyclical factors, market governance, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and changes in the external environment, what has greatly affected private enterprises is the lack of a predictable and stable environment that can help them establish stable expectations. Therefore, the establishment of the private economy development bureau marks a positive response to private enterprises and the market, given that it can listen to the voice of private enterprises, give them more timely policy responses, eliminate their concerns, and promote their development.

After its economy enters the stage of high-quality development, China needs to build a market system with high standards, improve the systems for property rights protection, market access and fair competition, and promote market-oriented allocation of factors of production, to build a unified, open and orderly market economy. Whether the government can truly enforce relevant rules and systems, and listen to reasonable opinions and suggestions of private enterprises is the key to the successful realization of a high-standard market system. The bureau will also help collect and listen to the voices of private enterprises, improve related work, and promote the high-quality development of the private economy.

The ultimate goal of the bureau is to establish a unified, open and fair competition market system in which all enterprises are treated equally. More departments need to make joint efforts to provide better services for private enterprises, and the bureau in particular should do more specific communication, service and logistics work for them.