What benefits can reform bring? One way to understand the driving effect of reform is through the lens of “a single pill”—insulin for diabetes patients.
Insulin is an essential daily medication for managing blood sugar levels, yet it was once priced excessively high. With the advancement of drug procurement reforms, insulin has been included in centralized purchasing, leading to an average price drop of 48% for selected products.
These reforms not only improve accessibility and quality of medications for the public but also alleviate the financial burden on patients. Compared to the period before centralized procurement, the usage rate of third-generation insulin, known for its enhanced efficacy and safety, increased from 58% to 70%.
Moreover, the significance of centralized purchasing extends beyond just cost savings. It also stimulates cooperation among the three healthcare sectors—medical services, medical insurance, and pharmaceuticals—promoting industry upgrades. The chairman of a pharmaceutical company that has had multiple innovative products included in the insurance catalog remarked, “With these innovative drugs being covered, we not only reduce the financial burden on patients but also provide new momentum for our company’s innovation and stable development.” This underscores the “driving force” of medical procurement reforms, benefiting the public while fostering industry growth.
As we strive for development, addressing issues becomes vital; deepening reform is a tactic. President Xi Jinping emphasizes the need to leverage the breakthrough and guiding role of reform to dismantle development bottlenecks, consolidate advantages, and enhance growth momentum.
Identifying problems serves as the logical starting point for reform. Effective reform emerges from addressing pressing issues and becomes more profound as it resolves them. By focusing on problems and implementing targeted reforms, greater benefits can be unlocked.
Take the example of administrative service reforms. As high-quality development progresses, businesses not only require basic administrative services like licensing but also demand assistance in areas such as talent acquisition, finance, and technological innovation. The challenge is how to better meet these personalized and precise service needs while alleviating burdens. This reflects the expectations of businesses and guides the direction of reform. Some regions have initiated value-added administrative service reforms, offering better support through “basic services + ancillary services” and “comprehensive enterprise services + industry-wide services.” By aligning reforms with development needs, businesses experience increased benefits and renewed vitality.
From this perspective, maintaining a problem-oriented approach and focusing on solving critical challenges will allow us to treat problem lists as reform agendas, ultimately leading to a resulting outcomes list that effectively enhances the traction of reforms.
Reform is a complex, systemic endeavor. To achieve the effect of “one piece falling can activate the whole board,” it is essential to identify key areas of focus and breakthrough points.
In the border region between Hunan and Jiangxi, a river changes names from Ping Shui in Jiangxi to Lu Shui in Hunan. In an effort to address ecological protection issues in the watershed, both provinces have initiated collaboration. However, they faced challenges such as a lack of transparency, ineffective coordination, inconsistent law enforcement, and uncoordinated emergency responses. The solution? The two provinces targeted institutional development by promoting coordinated legislation, establishing rules for collaborative planning and enforcement, and addressing governance challenges stemming from administrative divisions within a legal framework. As a result, the quality of the river water has improved, allowing more residents in the watershed to benefit from ecological and cultural tourism.
This underscores the importance of identifying the right entry points and focal areas to promote deeper reform. Given the myriad aspects of reform, finding the key that can drive comprehensive change enables effective reform implementation.
To achieve more significant reform outcomes, tailoring approaches to local conditions is crucial. The reforms outlined in the 20th Central Committee’s third plenary session are strategic and forward-looking; however, successful implementation must closely align with local realities, avoiding mere replication or imitating others. Innovating within local contexts and seeking effective solutions to emerging contradictions and problems, while continuously exploring replicable and scalable best practices, is essential to strengthening the inherent “driving force” of reform.
Courage in the face of reform comes from the expectations and support of the people, as well as a sense of responsibility for advancing development. By adhering to a problem-oriented approach and identifying breakthroughs in reform, we can innovate continuously, act decisively in advancing China’s modernization, and drive continuous improvements in reform, thereby sustaining motivation and vitality for economic and social development.
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