Innovation, frontier tech to gain more focus as Xi calls for ‘new productive forces’, experts say

Work is done on BYD's production line, which manufactures one car every minute on average, in its factory in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, on Feb 23, 2023. (YUAN JINGZHI / FOR CHINA DAILY)

China’s sharpening focus on the development of new productive forces is expected to give fresh impetus to high-quality economic development, promote the construction of a modern industrial system, and boost the nation’s core competitiveness globally amid headwinds and external uncertainties, experts and company executives said.

Emphasizing the key role of innovation, new productive forces — a key phrase reiterated last week by China’s top leader — mean advanced productivity freed from traditional economic growth patterns and productivity development paths. They feature high-tech, high efficiency and high quality, and come in accordance with the country’s new development philosophy.

Heightened efforts are needed to achieve breakthroughs in crucial technologies by investing more in basic research, strategic forward-looking fields, and future industries, and to strengthen enterprises’ dominant position in bolstering technological innovation, experts said.

READ MORE: President Xi calls for stronger innovation partnerships

Their comments came as President Xi Jinping called for efforts to accelerate the development of new productive forces and firmly promote high-quality development.

Sci-tech innovation can generate new industries, new models and new growth drivers, which are the core elements of the development of new productive forces, Xi said on Jan 31 while presiding over a group study session of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

At the study session, Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, expounded on the theory of new productive forces and their role in underpinning China’s high-quality development, and stressed the need to always keep in mind that high-quality development is the fundamental principle for the new era.

He urged efforts to ensure the sound implementation of strategic tasks such as accelerating the construction of a modern economic system, advancing high-level sci-tech self-reliance, speeding up the formation of a new development pattern, and coordinating the deepening of reforms and high-level opening-up.

He emphasized the need to guide the nation’s high-quality development with new theories on productivity, with new productive forces taking shape and serving as a strong impetus and pillar of high-quality growth.

Xi said that new productive forces are mainly driven by innovation and characterized by high technology, high efficiency, and high quality. 

New productive forces, spawned by revolutionary technological breakthroughs, the innovative allocation of factors of production, and the transformation and upgrading of industries, are characterized mainly by a significant increase in productivity, he added.

The study session included contributions by vice-premiers He Lifeng and Zhang Guoqing, as well as Ma Xingrui and Yuan Jiajun, the Party secretaries of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region and Chongqing municipality, respectively.

Du Chuanzhong, director of the Institute of Industrial Economics at Nankai University, said that new productive forces are mainly driven by technological innovation and new production factors such as data and computing power.

He emphasized that “strategic emerging industries and future industries” play a vital role in propelling the development of new productive forces.

More efforts should be made to beef up innovation capacities in core technologies in key fields, including big data, artificial intelligence, blockchain, sensors, quantum information, integrated circuits, and new materials, bolster the in-depth integration of cutting-edge digital technologies with the real economy and strengthen the training of high-quality and digital-savvy talent, Du said.

Faced with increasingly fierce international competition, China’s intensified efforts to foster new productive forces are of great significance in propelling the intelligent, green, and high-end development of industries, improving the resilience and security of industrial and supply chains, and consolidating the economic recovery momentum, said Pan Helin, co-director of the Digital Economy and Financial Innovation Research Center at Zhejiang University’s International Business School.

“Different from traditional productive forces that are mainly driven by labor and land, new productive forces rely more on technological advancement and the effective use of resources, and provide vital support and guarantees for high-quality economic development,” he said.

Noting that enterprises have played a prominent part in driving technological innovation, Pan called for more detailed measures to step up policy support for micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises, strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights, and optimize the business environment to attract capital and technology inflows.

Luo Zhongwei, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ Institute of Industrial Economics, said, “More emphasis should be placed on nurturing emerging industries with strategic importance, such as new-generation information technology, biotechnology, new energy, new materials, high-end equipment manufacturing and green industry.”

Xi first mentioned the term “new productive forces” during a fact-finding trip to Heilongjiang province in September.

The annual tone-setting Central Economic Work Conference in December reemphasized the need to spur industrial innovation with sci-tech innovation, especially using disruptive and cutting-edge technologies to spawn new industries, new models, and new growth momentum.

In his 2024 New Year address, Xi underscored that new-energy vehicles, lithium batteries, and photovoltaic products are a “new testimony to China’s manufacturing prowess”.

According to Chinese Customs, the nation’s exports of the three products grew 29.9 percent year-on-year to 1.07 trillion yuan ($149.7 billion) in 2023.

Xi reiterated on Jan 31 that sci-tech innovation is the core element for developing new productive forces.

China must perform well in the battle to develop core technologies so that original and disruptive sci-tech innovation outcomes can keep emerging, harnessing the new momentum for developing new productive forces, he said.

ALSO READ: Minister: China in full swing to promote new industrialization

He highlighted the need to apply sci-tech innovations in industries and industrial chains to upgrade traditional sectors, expand emerging industries, and plan for the development of future industries.

Xi laid out requirements to plan the development of industry chains centered on new productive forces to make industrial and supply chains more resilient and secure, and ensure that the industrial system is independent, secure and reliable.

Green development is the underlying part of high-quality development, and new productive forces are essentially green, he said.

China must expedite the green transformation of growth models to aid its goal of peaking carbon emissions before 2030 and attaining carbon neutrality before 2060, he stressed.

While reaffirming the nation’s commitment to follow a path prioritizing ecological protection and green development, Xi called for steps to build up the green manufacturing sector, develop green services, and expand the green energy industry.

It is important to develop green and low-carbon industrial and supply chains, and develop a green and low-carbon circular economy system, Xi added.

He stressed the need to further deepen reform to develop new productive forces, saying that reform of the nation’s economic system and sci-tech system must be enhanced and that a high-standard market system must be established.

Xi also set out steps to train talent, which is in short supply for the development of new productive forces. The steps include fine-tuning the disciplines of the nation’s higher education institutions and improving the income distribution system by incorporating new elements.

Zhu Keli, founding director of the China Institute of New Economy, said the vision laid out by Xi for developing new productive forces will help navigate the Chinese economy toward a path of high-quality and more sustainable growth.

He noted that China’s economy has entered a period in which traditional growth engines are gradually weakening, and emerging sectors and new technologies have taken the lead.

“The development of new productive forces not only improves the overall growth efficiency and competitiveness of the economy but also lays a more solid foundation for future high-quality economic development,” he added.

According to a guideline released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and six other government departments in late January, China vowed to support the development of future industries, with a particular focus on six key fields: manufacturing, information, materials, energy, space, and health.

Li Dongsheng, founder and chairman of Chinese consumer electronics maker TCL Technology Group Corp, said, “For China’s manufacturing industry, accelerating the development of new productive forces means further stimulating the vitality of technological innovation, continuously investing in scientific research and talent cultivation, and bolstering intelligent transformation of traditional manufacturing.”

Against the backdrop of a complicated international scenario, it is important to implement the innovation-driven development strategy and develop frontier technologies, in order to gain a competitive edge in global competition, said Chen Duan, director of the Digital Economy Integration Innovation Development Center at the Central University of Finance and Economics.

Chen said that the pursuit of sci-tech self-reliance is a prerequisite to guarantee national security. “Meanwhile, China should further expand international sci-tech exchanges and cooperation, and take an active part in formulating global rules and standards for core technologies, which is crucial for creating an open and globally competitive innovation ecosystem,” she added.

Private enterprises, which boast unique advantages in boosting technological innovation, should become an important force in the development of new productive forces, said Qi Xiangdong, chairman of Chinese cybersecurity company Qi-Anxin Technology Group.

Contact the writers at fanfeifei@chinadaily.com.cn