As China enters a stage of high-quality development, economic and social development is increasingly presented as a multidimensional and complex system. At the macro level, it is difficult to achieve development goals solely through a single policy; At the micro level, the implementation and effectiveness of a specific measure also require a series of supporting rules to coordinate and complement each other in execution. The Central Economic Work Conference regards "striking a good policy 'combination punch'" as a key measure to improve the forward-looking, targeted, and effective macroeconomic regulation, and requires "integrating economic and non economic policies into the consistency evaluation of macroeconomic policy orientation, coordinating the entire process of policy formulation and implementation, and improving the overall effectiveness of policies". This reflects the idea of adhering to a systematic approach and strengthening macroeconomic governance. In recent years, China has repeatedly emphasized the need to strengthen policy coordination and ensure that all policies work in the same direction and form a joint force. This is because in economic practice, there is often a phenomenon of "treating the head when the head hurts and treating the foot when the foot hurts", and some policies have fragmented and fragmented problems. Or there may be multiple departments within the same field, lacking overall planning; Or the connection between existing policies and incremental policies is not smooth and lacks coordination; Or the lack of consistent evaluation of policy effectiveness and social expectations may result in different policies being mutually constrained and their effectiveness offsetting each other. The more complex the situation, the more attention should be paid to promoting the formation of policy combination effects, playing the "combination punch" well, and enhancing the effectiveness of macro policy implementation. Firstly, this helps to break down departmental barriers horizontally and achieve deep coupling of policy tools. In terms of macroeconomic regulation, different policies such as finance, currency, employment, industry, region, trade, environmental protection, and supervision have different goals and focuses. If there is a lack of communication and coordination between policies, the effectiveness of policies will be difficult to demonstrate. For example, industrial policies encourage innovation and transformation. If environmental protection, regulatory and other policy adjustments are relatively lagging behind, some emerging industries will find it difficult to obtain key element support smoothly, and the existing incremental indicators of specific projects will be difficult to meet the energy consumption requirements. For example, some existing industry enterprises are facing investment pressure in the early stages of digital transformation. Without a market-oriented evaluation mechanism for the transformation results, financial institutions will find it difficult to accurately assess the risks and benefits of enterprise digital transformation, and will also find it difficult to provide sufficient credit support. Only by effectively implementing a combination of policies can we generate a synergistic effect of "1+1gt; 2" and promote macroeconomic regulation to gradually move towards higher-level collaborative governance. We need to coordinate and plan economic work, strengthen the coordination and cooperation between macro and micro policies, fiscal and monetary policies, economic policies and non economic policies, etc. Clarify the boundaries and connection methods between various policies. Once the overall development strategy or major project layout is determined, it is necessary to match subsequent policies such as industrial support, environmental protection, financial support, factor allocation, regulatory innovation, etc., and evaluate and design contingency plans for possible problems in advance to avoid obvious contradictions in policy objectives or implementation details. At the same time, we should pay attention to the various impacts of non economic policies on economic operations through their influence on the supply of production factors, business environment, etc. We should integrate economic policies and non economic policies into the macro policy orientation consistency evaluation, actively introduce policies that are conducive to stabilizing growth and expectations, and cautiously introduce policies that have contraction and inhibitory effects. Secondly, this helps to balance short-term effects and long-term benefits in terms of timing, avoiding neglecting one aspect over the other. Short term policies usually focus on addressing current contradictions or urgent needs, and aim to quickly alleviate local issues. For example, when there is significant downward pressure on the economy, measures such as reducing taxes and fees, lowering interest rates, and increasing market liquidity will be taken to stimulate demand, stabilize employment, and meet market expectations. The characteristic of such policies is that they take effect quickly and can promptly release positive signals or provide direct support. Long term policies focus more on deep-seated goals such as industrial upgrading, technological innovation, and environmental protection, emphasizing systematicity and foresight, and striving to lay a solid foundation for enhancing national competitiveness and sustainable economic and social development. If only short-term stimulation is relied upon, it is easy to cause resources to accumulate in backward or inefficient areas, damaging future development potential; On the contrary, if we blindly emphasize long-term structural transformation but pay insufficient attention to the current survival of enterprises, market confidence, and livelihood security, it is easy to miss opportunities and even trigger more problems. Only by effectively implementing a combination of policies can short-term efforts be targeted and long-term goals be determined. At the same time as introducing short-term policies, it is necessary to clarify their connection with long-term development goals. The implementation of phased tax and fee reductions or large-scale infrastructure construction investments needs to consider in advance the medium and long-term impacts of these measures on industrial structure, factor allocation, and environmental resources. We need to strengthen the connection between short-term policies and long-term policies. For example, short-term fiscal subsidies do not conflict with long-term industrial upgrading, but it is necessary to design a system in terms of subsidy standards, time limits, scope, etc., to avoid excessive dependence on subsidies by enterprises, and to combine them with long-term technological upgrading and green transformation to form an effective incentive loop. We also need to pay attention to the rational allocation of resources and the optimization of factor allocation. In the short term, sufficient innovation space and resource allocation channels should be reserved for the development of emerging industries. We should continue to deepen market-oriented factor allocation reform and fiscal system reform, and guide key factors such as funds and talents to flow towards areas with high growth and competitiveness. Thirdly, this helps to vertically connect the entire chain of "strategic planning policy design grassroots implementation" and reduce policy transmission losses. The effectiveness of policies depends not only on the scientificity of the formulation process, but also on the full chain connection of design and implementation. From top-level design to grassroots implementation, policy transmission involves multiple dynamic links such as strategic planning, tool design, resource allocation, and effectiveness feedback. In practice, the effectiveness of policies is often greatly reduced due to the poor connection between the "first kilometer" and the "last kilometer". In the front-end, if there is a lack of in-depth research on the actual needs of grassroots, it is easy to have a one size fits all approach and it is difficult to meet the diverse needs of different regions. At the end, if some regions lack administrative capacity, personnel, technology, and financial support, the effectiveness of policy implementation is often unsatisfactory, especially if the tracking and supervision mechanism in policy implementation is not sound, which may lead to "selective implementation" and further weaken policy effectiveness. Only by effectively implementing the policy "combination punch" can we ensure the consistency of the internal logic of the policy and the clarity of the implementation requirements in the process of policy transmission. In the policy-making stage, it is necessary to strengthen multi departmental collaboration and on-site research, widely listen to grassroots demands and suggestions, so as to take into account differentiated paths from the beginning of policy design and reserve flexible space for subsequent implementation. In the policy implementation stage, the differences in administrative capabilities of grassroots governments should be fully considered, and personnel training, technical support, and funding subsidies should be provided in a timely manner. In the policy supervision process, a continuous mechanism for tracking and feedback monitoring of policy effects should be established, especially for precise supervision of key projects and regions, to ensure that policy goals are achieved impartially. (outlook new era)

Author: Wang Haicheng (Associate Professor, School of Economics and Business Administration, Beijing Normal University)