Fostering new growth drivers high on agenda

China's emphasis on improving the mechanisms for fostering new quality productive forces and promoting the deeper integration of digital and real economies will inject fresh impetus into high-quality development, create new growth drivers and competitive edges, and boost the nation's core global competitiveness amid headwinds and external uncertainties, said officials, experts and company executives on Friday.

They called for heightened efforts to improve technological innovation capabilities, bolster industrial transformation and upgrading, and speed up the development of strategic emerging industries and future-oriented enterprises, as well as safeguard the security and stability of industrial and supply chains.

Driving a shift to new quality productive forces will be among China's top priorities in promoting high-quality development over the long run, said Han Wenxiu, executive deputy director of the Office of the Central Committee for Financial and Economic Affairs at a news conference on Friday in Beijing.

Han's remarks came after the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China adopted a resolution on further deepening reform comprehensively to advance Chinese modernization, at its third plenary session, which was held from Monday to Thursday in Beijing.

Han explained that the resolution said the country will accelerate the formation of production relations more adapted to the requirements of new quality productive forces, improve the systems and mechanisms for optimizing and upgrading traditional industries, and refine policies and governance systems for strategic industries. 

Han said more efforts should be made to establish a mechanism for investment and growth in future industries, improve the policy system for promoting the industrialization of digital technologies and digital transformation of industries, promote aggregation of various advanced production factors toward the development of new quality productive forces, and significantly enhance total factor productivity.

The resolution emphasized the need to promote the deep integration of the real economy and the digital economy, accelerate the development of modern services, strengthen the construction of modern infrastructure, and enhance the resilience and safety level of industrial and supply chains, which are the inherent requirements for high-quality development, he added.

Luo Zhongwei, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of Industrial Economics, said, "Fostering new growth drivers and upgrading traditional industries by leveraging cutting-edge digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, 5G and big data, have been high on China's development agenda."

Luo highlighted that the move to improve the institutional mechanisms for developing new quality productive forces is conducive to further propelling the intelligent, high-end and green transformation of industrial chains, consolidating economic recovery momentum, and strengthening the country's capacity to buffer against external risks and shocks.

Luo added that more emphasis should be placed on promoting sci-tech innovation and cultivating strategic emerging industries and future-oriented industries, including new-generation information technology, high-end equipment manufacturing, new energy, biotechnology and quantum computing, so as to gain an upper hand amid fierce international competition.

As the country is transitioning from the phase of rapid development to a stage of high-quality development, it is necessary to promote structural upgrading and the transformation of old to new growth drivers to enhance endogenous driving forces and long-term growth potential, said Wang Yiming, vice-chairman of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges.

"New quality productive forces are driven by revolutionary technological breakthroughs, innovative allocation of production factors and deep industrial transformation and upgrading," Wang said, adding further deepening reforms should focus on tackling bottlenecks that hinder the development of new quality productive forces.

Pan Helin, a member of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's Expert Committee for Information and Communication Economy, said, "It is of vital significance to develop new quality productive forces based on local conditions, avoid blind investments in some specific fields and make full use of innovative digital technologies to bolster industrial upgrade."

Pan called for accelerated efforts to step up research and development investments in core technologies of key fields like basic materials and software, precision components, integrated circuits and high-end equipment, as well as strengthen enterprises' dominant position in bolstering technological innovation.

"China's new economic growth drivers come from industrial transformation and upgrading as well as technological innovation. Through giving play to the leading role of enterprises in sci-tech innovation and stimulating their innovation vitality, the country could accelerate the formation of sound institutions and mechanisms for fostering new quality productive forces," said Li Dongsheng, founder and chairman of Chinese consumer electronics maker TCL Technology Group Corp.

Li said his company has enhanced independent innovation capacities, invested more than 60 billion yuan ($8.3 billion) in R&D in the past six years, and made breakthroughs in key technologies including next-generation display technologies, new energy, photovoltaics and materials.

Luo Zhiheng, chief economist at Yuekai Securities, expects the country to formulate more policy measures to promote R&D, application of big data and AI, as well as improve digital infrastructure and basic systems for data, such as data property rights registration mechanisms.