To further clarify the strategic direction, gather consensus and enhance development momentum, the Innovation Base for Income Distribution and Public Finance (hereinafter referred to as "the Innovation Base") held a "Strategic Development Planning Seminar of the Innovation Base for Income Distribution and Public Finance" in Wuhan on 18 November 2020.
The seminar was chaired by Professor Sun Qunli, Vice Director of the Innovation Base. The participants include: Professor Yang Canming, President of ZUEL and Director of the Innovation Base; Professor Zhang Kezhong, Vice Director of the Innovation Base and Dean of the School of Public Finance and Taxation; Professor Lu Yuanping, Executive Director of the Innovation Base; Professor Wu Haitao, Director of the Centre for Poverty Studies at the Innovation Base; Professor Shi Zhilai, Director of the Centre for Policy Evaluation and Service Research at the Innovation Base; Associate Professor Yang Guochao, Director of the Big Data Research Centre of the Innovation Base; Researchers of the Innovation Base: Professor Lei Wu, Associate Professor Binbin Tian, Dr Sun Yukun, Dr Li Wenjian, Dr Yang Xiaoliang, Dr Zhou Qiang, Dr Wang Junpeng, Dr Wan Xin, Dr Zhang Fan and Dr Liu Erpeng.
At the start of the seminar, Professor Yang Canming, Director of the Innovation Base, expressed his sincere gratitude to the experts and scholars for their presence and long term support. Professor Yang Canming pointed out that a review of the important speeches of General Secretary Xi Jinping, national development strategic plans and important policy documents since the 18th Party Congress has shown the importance attached to income distribution and the construction of the public finance system. Especially after entering the new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics, the transformation of social contradictions, the revitalisation of the countryside, the completion of a moderately prosperous society, the 14th Five-Year Plan and the achievement of the visionary goal of socialist modernisation by 2035 have all accentuated the importance of the study of income distribution issues, the improvement of income distribution policies and the long-term mechanism for income distribution. Professor Yang encouraged all colleagues in the Innovation Base to focus on the two main lines of "income distribution" and "public finance", the two perspectives of "international society" and "domestic scenario", and the two sections of "academic branding" and "think tank services", so as to jointly promote the Innovation Base to achieve even better results and build the characteristics of the research on income distribution and public finance of ZUEL.
Following this, Professor Zhang Kezhong, Vice Director of the Innovation Base, and Dean of the School of Public Finance and Taxation, emphasised the "integration-growth-excellence" path of team building and expressed the value and significance of forming an interdisciplinary research team of the Base. Afterwards, Prof. Lu Yuanping, Executive Director of the Innovation Base, gave a detailed presentation on the "mission-vision-values", "10-year strategic plan", "strategic organizational structure" and "current work focus". "and "Current Work Focus" to the attending guests. He pointed out that "modern science and technology and income distribution", "field experiments and income distribution" and "modern fiscal system and income distribution" are the core areas and distinctive features of the Innovation Base. The Innovation Base has continued to advance in these three areas and has made numerous achievements. In closing, Professor Lu expressed his gratitude to all the participants and hoped that they would continue to focus their efforts in the three core areas and produce richer and more top-notch achievements.
In the strategic planning discussion session, experts and scholars exchanged views on the positioning of the base in terms of "national and international research", "expanding the impact of social services" and "data, case studies and qualitative research". We all agreed that the innovation base should achieve three goals, namely "brand characteristics and core areas of academic research", "markets and audiences for policy research and social services", and "paths and schools of thought for academic team building and growth". Big data in finance was one of the key topics in the seminar. The scholars had a full exchange on various aspects of the structure of big data in finance, data collaboration and development, data trading, data sharing and big data computing.
The seminar lasted for nearly four hours with lively discussions. At the end of the meeting, Professor Sun Qunli, Vice Director of the Innovation Base, made a concluding speech. He indicated that, “who doesn't study for overall situation is hardly to manage for one aspect；who has no long-term consideration is hardly to organize temporarily”. The seminar further united the consensus and collective wisdom of all parties, which is of great significance to the stability of the base's development.