Abstract: Since the 14th Five-Year Plan, consensus has replaced controversy regarding the goal of building a unified national market. The thinking has expanded from the system to the factor market, the methodology has changed from establishing the new before abolishing the old to combining phasing out the old and bringing in the new, and the emphasis on means has shifted from hardware to software. However, there are still many challenges in terms of institutional reform. This paper mainly explores that how to continue the reform and remove institutional obstacles during the 15th Five-Year Plan period to achieve greater progress in building a unified national market from the perspective of the vertical central-local relationship. This paper points out that the current allocation of legislative power, personnel appointment and removal power, personnel assessment power, administrative power, financial power, and judicial power between the central and local governments has hindered the construction progress of a unified national market to a certain extent. The fundamental reason lies in that the coordination between administrative decentralization and economic decentralization needs to be further strengthened. Looking forward to the 15th Five-Year Plan period, we should continue to build a unified national market through regional integration, market-oriented allocation of factors, central-local relationship reshaping, and high-standard market economy. Specific measures include building a new mechanism for the collaborative development of different administrative regions, improving the operation mechanism of the factor market, promoting the legalization of the central-local relationship, promoting the symmetrical reform of local governments' financial and administrative powers, advancing judicial reform, promoting the transparency and centralization of industrial policies, and building a high-standard market foundation and environment. However, it should be noted that administrative centralization is not the goal and cannot inhibit the enthusiasm and flexibility of localities.
