China to speed up building of unified national market: market regulator

WUHAN — China will promote fair market competition and accelerate the construction of a unified national market, Luo Wen, director of the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), said Tuesday.

The country will focus on improving legal systems, coordinating policies, regulating and enforcing laws, and connecting rules to achieve these goals, Luo said at the opening ceremony of the 2024 China National Fair Competition Conference in Wuhan, central China’s Hubei Province.

The administration will improve the legal and regulatory system to prevent market monopolies and unfair competition, Luo added. He also said China will expand institutional opening-up in competitive sectors by deepening multilateral and bilateral exchanges and cooperation in the areas of combating monopolies and unfair competition.

Fair competition is a fundamental principle of market economy, an inevitable requirement for a unified market and an important basis for opening-up and cooperation, Luo noted.

In recent years, China’s market regulatory authorities have strengthened competition supervision and law enforcement, and improved the fair competition system. Positive results, including the issuance of a series of guidance documents for anti-monopoly work, have been achieved, according to the ASMR.

At the Wuhan conference, government agencies, industry experts, enterprises, representatives of competition law enforcement agencies, chambers of commerce and international organizations will participate in discussions and exchanges on these topics.