The interagency working group for revitalizing Northeast China met recently to discuss how to expedite the revitalization of the region during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period. It confirmed that improving the region's business environment was its priority.

The 14th Five-Year Plan also says that Northeast China should accelerate the transformation of government functions and optimize the business environment for its revitalization.

The region should first strive to create an efficient and convenient governance environment, promoting the transformation of government functions and working style; strengthening government responsibilities in public services, market supervision, social management and environmental protection; deepening reforms aimed at delegating power and simplifying administrative procedures, and abandoning its official-dominant way of thinking.

The region should advance legislation aimed at creating a fair and just legal environment to change the deep-rooted perception that the promotion of business activities is based on acquaintances and relationships rather than the rule of law and contract spirit.

Practical measures should also be taken to restrain the government's regulatory power to promote law-based governance so that the discretionary powers of administrative and law-enforcement personnel are in accordance with the law, and fees and taxes imposed on enterprises are standardized to lower their institutional transaction costs.

A market environment that can stimulate the vitality of various market entities and give full play to the market's decisive role in resource allocation should be created to facilitate better integration of an efficient market and a better-functioning government.

In order to solve the brain drain problem, which restricts its long-term development, Northeast China should strive to create an innovation-driven environment and improve its talent cultivation, introduction and incentive mechanism to form a "talent highland" institution and system. While strengthening the core competitiveness of, and implementing preferential policies, for talents, it should also form and improve a trial-and-error mechanism that encourages innovation and tolerates failure, so as to provide a broad space for the development of high-tech talents.

To achieve new breakthroughs for its revitalization, Northeast China also needs to create a cultural environment that can promote the transformation of not only governments and enterprises, but also people's way of thinking that is holding back the region's development.