Everyone talks about the economy | Let the "new individual economy" inject more power into high-quality development
Author: Professor Wang Kuancheng from Peking University. Chen Chunhua,Researcher, Socialism with Chinese characteristics Institute of Thought, Supreme Leader of Peking University, New Era Yin jun
In recent years, the "new individual economy" has entered the public eye and gained extensive attention. Previously, the National Development and Reform Commission and other 13 departments jointly issued the Opinions on Supporting the Healthy Development of New Business Forms and Models, Activating the Consumer Market and Promoting the Employment Expansion, which mentioned for the first time "encouraging the development of new individual economy and opening up new space for consumption and employment" to help the new economy and new business forms develop further. The new individual economy is an innovative combination of "internet plus individual economy". Compared with the traditional individual economy, it has great innovations in technology, mode, market and employment. Under the situation of epidemic normalization prevention and control, the new individual economy is not only a response to economic recovery, but also an important way to "ensure six guarantees and six stabilities", enhance economic development momentum and stimulate market innovation vitality. Therefore, we should further increase policy support for the new individual economy, improve relevant laws and regulations, create a good atmosphere for mass entrepreneurship and innovation, and inject greater vitality and power into the high-quality economic development of China.
Where is the new individual economy "new"
At present, the new individual economy is in a period of vigorous development, which has not only spawned various new economic formats and new business models, but also greatly changed the original market structure, market demand and employment methods, showing many "new" characteristics.
New technology: the development opportunity in the digital age. The primary feature of new individual economy is "internet plus", which has the characteristics of digital economy at first. The use of digital technology is the basic attribute of the new individual economy. The traditional logic of individual economy development is the logic of competition, that is, it is either one or the other, and the individual economy succeeds by winning limited opponents around it. In the digital age, the development logic of the new individual economy has changed. Everything is interconnected and interdependent, and the new individual economy has been facing a dynamic, complex and rapidly changing environment. The practitioners of the new individual economy cannot cope with environmental changes and promote development by their own strength, so they need to develop together with ecological partners, that is, follow the symbiotic logic to achieve symbiosis, sharing and common prosperity.
The new "mode": the manifestation of mass entrepreneurship and innovation. The new individual economy has moved the traditional individual economy to the Internet, and its business model has changed from the original "individual economy to consumers" to "Internet platform+individual economy to consumers". The biggest feature of the new individual economy business model is the empowerment of Internet platforms, which include both social media platforms and various e-commerce platforms. These Internet platforms have huge online traffic. With the empowerment of the platform, every individual industrial and commercial household can apply to become a new individual economic practitioner and become a virtual shop owner based on the platform, which can quickly reach all kinds of consumers, quickly gain consumers’ cognition, shorten consumers’ decision-making time, and extremely reduce the transaction and communication costs between the supply and demand sides, thus realizing fast transactions. In addition, with the support of big data technology, the platform can also provide more customized market and consumer information for new individual economic practitioners, help new individual economic practitioners to better understand the market and consumer needs, and provide consumers with more personalized products and services to enhance their business performance.
New Market: A Great Opportunity for Economic Recovery. The traditional individual economy is mainly aimed at the offline market, and most of them are oriented to local areas. The new individual economy relies on the Internet platform, not only for the traditional offline market, but also for the internet of everything and the infinitely vast online market. The consumers who serve are no longer limited to one street, one lane, one city and one town, but for the whole country and even the whole world. Therefore, great changes have taken place in both market structure and market demand, which also provides an incomparably broad platform and opportunity for the development of new individual economy. At the same time, the rapid development and convenience of the new individual economy have also cultivated new consumption habits in the market. Online consumption and online office have become the first choice of more and more consumers.
New employment: an important guarantee for stable employment. The innovation of the new individual economy is that it has broken through the "company+employee" model of the traditional individual economy and changed into a new model of "platform+individual". For example, entrepreneurs in the new individual economy have realized a new mode of self-employment with the help of various resources on the platform. For the employees of the new individual economy, this model also gives them higher autonomy, and they can work without time and space restrictions, and they can freely choose their employers and working hours, thus attracting the attention of many employees, especially young employees. In addition, as a link between new individual economic practitioners and resources, the platform has also spawned many new ways of employment. Since the outbreak of the epidemic in COVID-19, many jobs have been greatly impacted, but the employment of the new individual economy has soared against the trend, which has contributed an important force to stabilizing employment and boosting the economy.
How better?Promote the healthy development of new individual economy
Implement the policy of "combination boxing" and increase support for the new individual economy. The first is to further reduce the entry threshold, start-up cost and operating cost of the new individual economy, especially the platform use service fee and financing cost of the new individual economy. The government can guide financial institutions to provide more favorable and convenient financing policies for the new individual economy, or give the new individual economy corresponding entrepreneurial subsidies or interest-free loans. At the same time, it can issue industry guidance on the benefit distribution of Internet platforms, guide Internet platform enterprises to reduce the platform service fees of practitioners, and attract more individual operators to start businesses online.
The second is to create a social atmosphere that supports the development of new individual economy. For example, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and other departments officially released a new professional directory to the society, including "blockchain engineering technicians" and "Internet marketers", and added formal jobs such as "live salesmen", "e-commerce anchors" and "online celebrity with goods" under the occupation of "Internet marketers"; The Ministry of Education classifies the opening of online stores as "self-employment" and the bloggers and e-sports workers in WeChat official account as "freelancing". For another example, some areas have formulated targeted support policies for the new individual economy by establishing and improving relevant statistical monitoring systems, including policies such as deferring or exempting social security fees for new individual economy practitioners, or extending the existing employment policies and entrepreneurship support policies for the real economy to the new individual economy to support the development of the new individual economy.
Due to the rapid development of the new individual economy, many new formats and new models will emerge in practice. At the policy support level, we should adhere to the development concept of keeping pace with the times, formulate relevant measures according to the characteristics of the new individual economy, provide better services for the new individual economy with "Internet+government services", or provide more high-quality public products for the new individual economy with platform enterprises. In addition, in policy making, we should reserve enough flexible space for the innovation and entrepreneurship of the new individual economy, and we should not bind the hands and feet of the new individual economy to expand its operations and innovate ways.
We will speed up the improvement of the system of laws and regulations and effectively protect the rights of all kinds of subjects. First, we should improve the laws and regulations to protect the rights of new self-employed workers, especially the policies on labor rights protection, salary and welfare, and social security for flexible employees, and explore the rights protection and social security policies to adapt to cross-platform and multi-employer flexible employment, so as to relieve the worries of new self-employed workers. Especially in terms of employment, training, rights protection and other policy standards and institutional norms, we should be as consistent as possible with the practitioners of the traditional individual economy, and pay attention to ensuring the rest rights and occupational safety of the new individual economy practitioners.
Secondly, scientifically formulate the supervision system of the industry to protect the legitimate rights of consumers. Cooperate with industry associations and platform enterprises to formulate industry standards. In addition, it is necessary to formulate the management measures for the new individual economy, and make it clear in terms of business varieties, rights protection mechanism, honest management and after-sales service to protect consumers’ legitimate rights.
Carry forward entrepreneurship and create a good atmosphere for mass entrepreneurship and innovation. Carrying forward the entrepreneurial spirit is the fundamental measure to promote the long-term development of the new individual economy from the perspective of the healthy development of the new individual economy. It is necessary to carry forward the entrepreneurial spirit of patriotism, innovation, honesty, courage to shoulder social responsibilities and expand international horizons in society, oppose the impetuous atmosphere of pursuing short and quick, and create a good atmosphere for mass entrepreneurship and innovation.
It is necessary to guide new individual economic practitioners to pay attention to the trend of national strategic development and technological progress, make good use of policies, conform to the trend, and realize the same frequency resonance between individuals and national economic and social development. It is necessary to guide new individual economic practitioners to break the inertia of thinking, maintain the attitude of lifelong learning, be explorers, organizers and leaders of innovation and development, and be brave in promoting production innovation, technological innovation, market innovation and management innovation. It is necessary to guide the new individual economic practitioners to be honest and law-abiding, enhance the awareness of the rule of law, the spirit of contract, and the concept of keeping contracts, and set an example of honesty and law-abiding. To guide the new individual economic practitioners to shoulder social responsibilities, in the process of economic and social development, in the struggle to prevent and control the COVID-19 epidemic, and play an important role in the work of "six guarantees and six stabilities". Finally, we should guide the new individual economic practitioners to broaden their international horizons, seize the opportunity of opening up to the outside world, and achieve greater achievements on the global stage.