New quality productive forces to inject momentum into economy

China's emphasis on constructing a modern industrial system and accelerating the development of new quality productive forces is expected to ensure the security of industrial and supply chains, advance new industrialization and inject fresh impetus into the country's high-quality economic development, political advisers and industry experts said.

Qu Yongyi, a member of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the country's top political advisory body, said more efforts should be made to step up investments in core technologies in key fields and solve bottlenecks in areas like raw materials, critical components, core equipment and basic software, so as to boost the nation's self-reliance and strength in science and technology and unleash new quality productive forces.

Qu, who is also Party secretary and deputy director of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of Industrial Economics, stressed the need to strengthen international cooperation in sci-tech, accelerate the construction of new types of infrastructure, including new-generation communication base stations, computing power centers and national laboratories, and deepen reforms, especially in sci-tech to cultivate more high-quality talent.

The comments have come at a time when the Government Work Report for this year has stated that China will strive to modernize its industrial system and quickly develop new quality productive forces.

The country will give full rein to the leading role of innovation, spur industrial innovation by making innovations in science and technology and press ahead with new industrialization, in order to promote a new leap forward in the productive forces, according to the report.

Qu said the term "new quality productive forces" means advanced productivity, mainly driven by revolutionary technological breakthroughs, innovative allocation of production factors, and deep industrial transformation and upgrading. They can generate new industries, new models and new growth momentum.

Citing that sci-tech innovation is a key element in developing new quality productive forces, he said, "For traditional industries, the injection of new quality production factors such as data, and the innovative allocation of original production factors can effectively promote the deep transformation and upgrading of industries."

Moreover, strategic emerging industries and future-oriented industries play a vital role in propelling the development of new quality productive forces, he added.

On the Government Work Report's GDP growth target of around 5 percent for this year, Qu said it aligns with the objectives of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) and the broader goal of achieving socialist modernization by 2035, taking into account the need to boost employment and people's incomes, and prevent and defuse risks.

Cao Peng, a member of the 14th CPPCC National Committee and chairman of e-commerce platform JD's technology committee, said he was inspired by the country's efforts in developing new quality productive forces revealed in the Government Work Report, which has set a crucial direction for bolstering high-quality economic development and advancing Chinese modernization.

Developing new quality productive forces denotes the close integration of cutting-edge digital technologies represented by cloud computing and artificial intelligence with intelligent machines and a digitally savvy workforce.

In his proposal to this year's two sessions, Cao called for efforts to step up policy support for industrial internet platforms to push forward the digital transformation of small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as bolster the in-depth integration of the digital and real economies.

Faced with increasingly fierce international competition, China's intensified push to foster new quality productive forces is 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.

Pan said enhanced efforts are needed to double down on indigenous innovation to make breakthroughs in core and key technologies, and expand the industrial application scenarios of leading technologies, so as to gain a competitive edge on the global stage.