The Symposium on Discipline Development for Income Distribution and Public Finance was held on 7 July 2020 at7th Floor Conference Room, Zhongyuan Building of ZUEL. The symposium was co-organized by the Institute of IIDPF and the School of Public Finance and Taxation, which was conducted in the form of online and offline, domestic and foreign interaction. Guo Fangming, Director of the Hubei Supervisory Bureau of the Ministry of Finance, Long Zhengcai, Director of the Hubei Provincial Department of Finance, Wang Wei, Director of the Hubei Provincial Department of Science and Technology, and Xu Xinqiao, First-level inspector of the Hubei Provincial Development and Reform Commission, attended the meeting. Luan Yongyu, General Secretary of the Party Committee of ZUEL, Yang Canming, President of ZUEL, Wu Handong, Director of Academic Committee of ZUEL, Yan Ping, Yao Li, Zou Jinwen and Shen Zuwu, Vice Presidents of ZUEL, main leaders of relevant functional departments and deans of colleges, professors and young scholars of relevant research fields of the university attended the conference. Professor Gao Peiyong, Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Professor Liu Shangxi, President of the Chinese Academy of Financial Sciences, and Professor Li Shi, Senior Professor of Liberal Arts at Zhejiang University, participated in the Tencent online conference. Professor Stefan Dercon from the University of Oxford, Professor Richard Krever from the University of Western Australia, Professor Jonathan Hamilton from the University of Florida, Professor Simon Appleton from the University of Nottingham, Assistant Professor Tom Lane from the University of Nottingham Ningbo, and Professor Suyu Liu, International Consultant and Economist at the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, participated in the conference exchange via pre-recorded video.
The symposium was opened by Zou Jinwen, Vice President of ZUEL. The meeting started with a address by Luan Yongyu, General Secretary of the Party Committee of ZUEL. Professor Luan expressed his warm welcome and heartfelt thanks to the guests, briefly introduced the achievements of ZUEL in the process of becoming a "first-class humanities and social sciences university", and expressed ZUEL's full support for the construction of Innovation Base for Income Distribution and Public Finance. In closing, Professor Luan wished the seminar every success.
This was followed by a speech by Yang Canming, President of ZUEL and Dean of IIDPF. On behalf of IIDPF, Professor Yang expressed his gratitude to the leaders and experts for their participation in the conference, followed by an introduction to the significance, importance and disciplinary trends of the research topic of income distribution and public finance. Professor Yang also expressed his commitment to making IIDPF a top-notch research institution in China and the world, and hoped that all leaders and experts would continue to give their support and assistance.
In the following, Guo Fangming, Director of the Hubei Supervisory Bureau of the Ministry of Finance, delivered a keynote speech. Director Guo indicated that the research topic of income distribution and public finance was of great importance. He was very pleased to see that ZUEL had continued to conduct research in this area and had achieved great results, and encouraged the Institute to build on its successes from a new starting point. Long Zhengcai , Director of the Department of Finance of Hubei Province, expressed his deep affection for his alma mater and thanked it for contributing a large number of talents to the financial work front, and expressed his heartfelt support for the construction and development of his alma mater as always. Xu Xinqiao, the First-class Inspector of the Hubei Provincial Development and Reform Commission, started this speech with a couplet, congratulating ZUEL on its achievements and expressing his full support for the development of IIDPF.
In conclusion, Professor Zhang Kezhong, Dean of the School of Public Finance and Taxation of ZUEL and Vice President of IIDPF, introduced the subsequent construction and development plan of IIDPF. By turning IIDPF into an international research institute with ZUEL characteristics, through international academic frontiers, localised think-tank services and differentiated research perspectives, IIDPF will ultimately become a first-class think-tank and scientific research institution by focusing on the major strategic needs of the country and the goal of serving national economic and social development.
The keynote session of the seminar was chaired by Professor Yang Canming, President of ZUEL and Dean of IIDPF. The first part of the keynote took place at the Tencent Meeting. Firstly, Professor Gao Peiyong, Vice Dean of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, delivered a keynote speech on the topic of "Standing on the Platform of the New Era of Socialism to Study the Discipline of Income Distribution and Public Finance". Professor Gao presented an in-depth analysis of the research topic of income distribution and public finance from three perspectives: the new connotation given by the new era of socialism, the high-quality development of the country, and the need to modernise national governance. This was followed by a keynote speech by Professor Liu Shangxi, President of the Chinese Academy of Fiscal Sciences, entitled "A New Perspective on the Study of Income Distribution Issues", which took a look at consumption inequality, provided insights into the human capital imbalance behind inequality, and put forward relevant policy recommendations in terms of the corrective role of government public consumption on private consumption and the relationship between central and local finance. The last speech was delivered by Li Shi, Senior Professor of Arts at Zhejiang University, on the topic of "Explaining the Changing Income Gap in China". Professor Li provided an in-depth analysis of four important issues: the basic situation of China's current personal income distribution, the dramatic widening of the property gap among Chinese residents, the functions of strengthening income distribution policies, and how to understand the widening income gap in China.
The second part of the keynote speech was pre-video recorded by the foreign experts and played in the venue. Professor Dercon of the University of Oxford delivered a keynote speech on "China's Anti-Poverty Campaign: What Matters Most and What Happens Next?”. Professor Krever of the University of Western Australia gave a keynote speech on “China's Changing Distribution of Tax Revenue in Historical and Comparative Perspectives”. Professor Hamilton from the University of Florida gave a keynote speech on “Poverty Alleviation in China”. Professor Appleton, University of Nottingham, gave a talk on “Working on Poverty: Chinese Lessons for African Countries”. Assistant Professor Lane from the University of Nottingham Ningbo presented his insights on “Inequality and Income Distribution: Experimental Approaches”. Professor Suyu Liu, International Consultant and Economist of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation, gave a talk on “Research on Fiscal Investment in the Real Economy under the COVID-19 pandemic”.
The keynote sessions were well received by the participants, experts and scholars, who indicated that their presentations were at the forefront of research and enlightening. At this point, the Symposium on Income Distribution and Public Finance was successfully concluded.
At a time when a prosperous society will be built in 2020, the experts and scholars of the symposium had an in-depth exchange on the topic of income distribution and public finance, discussing the frontiers of income distribution, discussing the development of the discipline of public finance, and helping China's high-quality development is of great practical significance.