The debate competition is asking for a defense material (speech + defense summary): Whether China’s foreign investment policies are reasonable. Debate on economic and environmental issues.

1. Problems in the construction of my country’s soft environment for investment promotion

(1) The government’s role is misplaced and its functions have not changed

In the final analysis, investment promotion is a market behavior , economic behavior, the protagonists are enterprises and relevant intermediary agencies. The government should follow the rules of market economy and adhere to the principle of separation of government and enterprises. Investment promotion indicators have become the most important and hardened indicators of the completion of work performance. In order to complete the targets, some local governments have taken over the investment promotion work and participated in it throughout the process. In fact, it has become "enterprises setting up the stage and the government singing the show." This is a misplacement and offside of the government's role, which makes enterprises that should be guided by the market The behavior is combined with the behavior of local governments, which distorts market signals. It not only increases the cost of investment and reduces the efficiency of investment, but also has greater arbitrariness and autocratic tendencies in government behavior. The government and its officials pursue the maximization of monopoly rents. Their behavior can easily lead to various irregularities and breed corruption.

Although my country's investment approval system has been reformed, it is still relatively cumbersome and complicated, which makes some investors intimidated. In addition, the staff in some departments have low work efficiency, poor service quality, difficult to enter, ugly faces, and difficult to get things done. There is a lack of strong coordination and cooperation in the multi-party management of opening up to the outside world and investment promotion. Relevant departments attach great importance to project approval and neglect post-approval management. Loopholes in foreign investment management have led to some foreign investors not performing contracts after the project is launched.

(2) The legal environment is not perfect

The level of my country's legal environment construction is quite different from the objective requirements of market economic development. The main manifestations are:

1. The concept of rule of law is relatively weak. When attracting investment, on the one hand, they ignore their own rights and interests, and on the other hand, they have a weak awareness of protecting the rights and interests of developers and investors. This has greatly weakened the attractiveness of attracting investment.

2. Relevant legislation is imperfect. Urgently needed investment and financing laws and regulations have not yet been formulated, and preferential treatment for foreign-invested enterprises relies too much on tax policies and does not regard industrial openness as a key factor in attracting foreign investment.

3. The authority of the law is not high, and administrative law enforcement and judicial injustice still exist. In judicial practice, the supreme dignity and authority of the law are far from receiving due attention. Administrative law, economic law and other laws and regulations often become "soft laws" that can be trampled on at will. Local protectionism is prominent. For the benefit of one party, the law can be ignored and the market can be divided or blocked at will, seriously undermining the unity of the market.

(3) Relying solely on tax incentives to attract investment leads to disordered competition

In recent years, in order to attract foreign investment, various regions and departments have introduced land, local tax exemptions, and industrial fields. Preferential policies in other areas have been launched, and "preferential policy competitions" have been held to compete for concessions to others, resulting in various unfair transactions. Many places invite investment at prices below the cost of land, and in some places there are even "zero land prices" or "buy one land, get one free". This preferential land policy wastes limited land resources. At the same time, excessive competition among various regions and departments has led to lower investment thresholds, resulting in a number of lower-level, high-consumption, and high-pollution projects being settled in my country, ultimately exacerbating my country's ecological and environmental problems.

In terms of tax policy, according to my country's current tax system, the statutory nominal tax rate for domestic and foreign-funded enterprises is 33%. Due to different tax reduction and exemption policies and expense deduction policies, the actual tax burden is more than doubled ( The income tax rate for domestic-funded enterprises is 33%, and the income tax rate for foreign-invested enterprises is approximately 15%). However, various localities have broken through the bottom line of national tax laws, regulations and central policies, competing to introduce "local policies" and relying solely on preferential tax policies to attract investment. On the one hand, this encourages short-term behavior and speculative psychology of foreign investment; on the other hand, tax incentives bring certain losses to national tax benefits. According to statistics, in 1995, China's preferential tax policies for foreign investment reduced tax revenue by 66 billion yuan, accounting for 1.2% of GDP that year.

(4) The market mechanism is inflexible and the market order is chaotic

Because my country's market economic system is not yet perfect and the transformation of government functions has not been in place, the government's direct investment responsibility is lacking and state-owned enterprises " The phenomenon of "absent owner" is still widespread, and a diversified investment subject system with unified rights, responsibilities and interests has not yet been truly formed. The capital market lacks effectiveness and has not yet formed a system conducive to the diffusion of social capital.

Because market economy regulations are not sound enough and law enforcement is not strong enough, the market order in some areas is chaotic, credit status is poor, economic crimes such as the production and sale of counterfeit and shoddy goods are rampant, and legitimate operations cannot be given due protection.

(5) Lack of technical and management talents, and imperfect social service intermediary service system

Our country is rich in labor resources, but the quality of the labor force is low, there is a shortage of middle and senior technical management talents, and ordinary workers Poor education and difficult to manage. In addition, the overall service level of intermediaries in my country is low, and there is a lack of accounting, auditing institutions and legal service institutions.

Second Countermeasures and Suggestions for Strengthening the Construction of Soft Environment for Investment Promotion

(1) Emancipate the mind and innovate concepts

1. Firmly establish that "environment is the first point of competition" , the concept of "environment produces benefits". Inter-regional competition under the trend of economic globalization is concentrated in the competition of development environment. Environmental issues have become a key constraint on economic development. The level of development environment directly determines the quantity, scale and level of investment.

2. Establish the concept that everyone is an investment environment. We should regard improving the soft investment environment and its publicity work as a long-term task, make the concept that the soft investment environment is a decisive factor in enhancing the attractiveness of investment promotion deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and continuously improve the overall level of opening up year by year.

1. Further transform government functions. The government under the market economic system must be a government based on the rule of law and a limited government. The main functions of the government are overall planning, policy control, information guidance, organization and coordination, service provision and inspection and supervision, and creating a good environment for market entities to accelerate development. To do a good job in environmental construction, the fundamental thing is to accelerate the transformation of government functions. By strengthening public management functions, weakening micro-management functions, and transforming social management functions, we can provide good public order and effective public service for the entire society. Serve.

2. Give full play to the leading role of market entities in attracting investment. While focusing on transforming government functions, the government should withdraw from the role of attracting investment, move from "in front of the stage" to behind the scenes, and use the government's advantages of wide channels and wide scope of external contact to match enterprises.

3. Simplify the approval procedures and improve work efficiency. The government should reform the foreign investment approval system in accordance with the law, standardize administrative licensing behavior in accordance with the requirements of the Administrative Licensing Law, simplify licensing procedures, increase work transparency, improve licensing supervision mechanisms, and improve work efficiency and service quality based on the characteristics of foreign-invested enterprises. By providing comprehensive services to foreign-invested enterprises, we will introduce more foreign investment and retain foreign investment. Governments at all levels must strengthen leadership and coordination of vertical departments such as taxation, commodity inspection, customs, finance, and electricity to ensure the smooth development of the foreign-owned economy.

(3) Optimize the legal environment for investment promotion

1. Improve the legal system for investment promotion. Within the framework of WTO rules and in light of my country's actual conditions, we will further improve the legal and regulatory system for investment promotion, especially investment and financing; Measures should be taken to clean up in a timely manner in accordance with the law.

2. Standardize administrative law enforcement behavior. The government must not only protect the legitimate rights and interests of enterprises and merchants, but also support functional departments in exercising their powers in accordance with the law. Administrative departments at all levels must perform their duties strictly in accordance with legal authority and procedures, standardize administrative law enforcement behaviors; strengthen administrative law enforcement supervision, treat all types of market entities fairly, and must not engage in any discriminatory behavior; establish a civilized, efficient, and fair law enforcement image, and maintain and improve a fair and open market environment.

3. It is necessary to establish and improve various systems, strictly enforce laws and regulations, especially strict approval procedures for land, business licenses, environmental protection, production safety, and the construction of industrial parks and development zones, and severely crack down on fraudulent activities for public benefit and private gain in investment promotion. lining personal pockets and other behaviors that harm national interests. For investment promotion involving the purchase and revitalization of state-owned assets, the principles of fairness, impartiality, and openness must be adhered to during the auction, and the legitimate interests of the masses must be resolutely safeguarded. Any losses involving the interests of the masses must be compensated in accordance with relevant state regulations, and national interests must be protected in accordance with the law. and public interests.

4. Standardize charging behavior and increase efforts to control the "three chaos". Effective measures must be taken to standardize the charging system for foreign-invested enterprises and resolutely put an end to all forms of arbitrary fees, fines, and assessments. On the basis of a comprehensive review of the current recommendation fees,

(4) Establish a selective incentive mechanism

1. Improve various preferential policies from the perspective of the overall investment environment.

When formulating and improving preferential policies, the degree of each preferential policy must be considered in light of my country's actual conditions and the overall investment environment. Governments at all levels should formulate investment attraction plans in accordance with the "Tenth Five-Year Plan" and long-term development plans and based on the characteristics of different regions and industries. In particular, they should formulate and improve a series of preferential policies and measures to attract foreign investment. At the same time, attention should be paid to the consistency of tax and other preferential policies with the direction of national economic policies to avoid competition for tax preferences in order to attract foreign investment, thereby damaging the country's fiscal revenue.

2. Realize the transition from preferential policies such as taxation to national treatment policies and establish a selective incentive mechanism. Simply using preferential policies on taxation, land, etc. to attract investment is in conflict with the basic rules of the WTO. From the current point of view, it is necessary to study the psychology of foreign investment and determine the target positioning of local use of foreign investment; it is necessary to strictly control the abuse of land policy preferences as a means of attracting investment, adhere to the principle of "making the best use of every inch of land", and encourage the new model of "landless investment" , attract foreign investment with as little or even no land occupation as possible, and expand the way of connotative utilization of foreign investment; because the cancellation of preferential policies will cause greater fluctuations, therefore, in areas where it is necessary to continue to maintain some special preferential policies, implement unified internal and external policies The policy, while retaining preferential conditions for foreign-funded enterprises, provides the same treatment to non-foreign-funded enterprises to reflect the requirements of fair competition between domestic and foreign-funded enterprises as much as possible.

(5) Establish a new cadre assessment and punishment mechanism

Assessing the performance of grassroots cadres based on the amount of investment is an approach that is eager for quick success and violates the laws of capital flow, and will undermine local governments. The harmfulness of the order of economic and social development cannot be underestimated and should be corrected. In accordance with the requirements of the new development outlook established in the Resolution of the Third Plenary Session of the 16th CPC Central Committee, we must establish a cadre performance assessment and punishment mechanism that is consistent with the scientific development outlook, and formulate a scientific and reasonable economic and social development evaluation system and performance evaluation system. Look at government work and cadres' achievements comprehensively, systematically, historically and dialectically. It depends not only on the quantity of foreign capital introduced, but also on the quality or advancement of the projects that introduce foreign capital; it depends on both economic indicators, social indicators, humanistic indicators and environmental indicators; it depends on both current development and the prospects of development. Sustainability; it depends on both economic development and social stability; there must be both incentives and punishments, especially the establishment of a system for holding administrative heads accountable for violations.

(6) Maintain unified, standardized, open and fair market competition

1. Cultivate a modern market system and establish a mechanism that relies on the market to allocate production factors. To actively cultivate a modern market system, we should focus on strengthening the construction of securities markets and financial markets, further promote the development of the property rights trading market, and strengthen the function of the property rights trading market in allocating social resources. Build a modern bank-enterprise relationship and establish a good financing system.

2. Create and maintain a unified, standardized, open and fair market competition environment. Market supervision mechanisms should be established and improved to standardize market order and prevent vicious competition; intensify efforts to rectify problems such as vicious price cuts, counterfeiting, failure to perform contracts on time, and loan arrears; break local protection and industry monopolies, and effectively protect intellectual property rights , protect the legitimate rights and interests of all investment parties from being infringed; continue to standardize and improve information, technology and other factor markets so that they can play a greater role