Core viewpoint: The emergence and development of new quality productive forces will bring earth-shaking changes to human society. The development of new quality productive forces is conducive to promoting Chinese-style modernization and accelerating the process of realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. The core of the formation and development of new productive forces lies in innovation, the key lies in cultivating new momentum for economic development, and the focus is on the formation of new industries. In terms of developing new quality productive forces, China not only has many advantages and conditions, but also has some shortcomings and challenges.
Ma Xiaohe. On the afternoon of January 31, the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China conducted the 11th collective study on solidly promoting high-quality development. ** When presiding over the study, the general secretary emphasized that the development of new quality productivity is an inherent requirement and an important focus to promote high-quality development, and we must continue to do a good job in innovation to accelerate the development of new quality productivity. The ** Economic Work Conference held in December 2023 proposed to promote industrial innovation with scientific and technological innovation, especially to promote new industries, new models and new kinetic energy with disruptive technologies and cutting-edge technologies, and develop new quality productivity. The new quality productivity is the renewal and iteration of the traditional productive forces, and is the ultimate decisive force to promote economic and social development. Speeding up the development of new productive forces and cultivating new momentum for economic growth is of great strategic significance to building a modern socialist country in an all-round way.
The background and connotation characteristics of the new quality productive forces.
According to Marx, "productive forces, that is, the development of productive capacity and its factors", are the ability of people to use laborers, labor objects and labor materials to create material products and services needed by society under the established production relations. The productive forces are the most active and revolutionary factor and the ultimate determining force for social development. In the history of human development, every time there has been a huge and qualitative leap in the social productive forces, it has been caused by a major breakthrough in the scientific and technological revolution. The first scientific and technological revolution in the 60s of the 18th century was marked by the widespread use of steam engines, and the replacement of manual labor with mechanical tools gave birth to the era of steam engines represented by machines. The second scientific and technological revolution that occurred in the mid-to-late 19th century, marked by the wide application of electric power technology and internal combustion engine technology, gave birth to the rapid development of electric power, chemical industry, petroleum, automobile and other industries, and human society entered the era of electrification. The third scientific and technological revolution that began in the second half of the 20th century, along with the breakthroughs and extensive applications of semiconductors, computers and other technologies, has ushered in the information age. Nowadays, mankind is experiencing the fourth scientific and technological revolution, represented by a new generation of information technology, biotechnology, new material technology, and new energy technology, giving birth to a number of new industries, new models, new formats, and new products.
Every time there is a big leap in social productivity, it is the renewal and iteration of the traditional productive forces by the new and higher quality productive forces. Therefore, compared with the traditional productive forces, the new quality productive forces are advanced productive forces that have made subversive breakthroughs in scientific and technological innovation, revolutionary reorganization of production factors, deep transformation of industrial kinetic energy, and highly improved output efficiency. Judging from the previous three scientific and technological revolutions and the fourth scientific and technological revolution that is being experienced, the emergence of contemporary advanced productive forces presents the following basic characteristics in terms of technological innovation, factor allocation, industrial form, and industrial output. First, in terms of technological innovation, key technologies have disruptive breakthroughs. Once these technological innovations make subversive breakthroughs, they will rapidly drive industrial innovation along the technological innovation chain, and then form new quality productivity. Examining the previous scientific and technological revolutions, the key core technologies that can make subversive breakthroughs are often original technologies from 0 to 1, which can bring changes to the production and lifestyle of human society, can dominate social and economic development, and have permeability, integration and support for contemporary or future economic and social development and industrial transformation and upgrading. In addition, with the continuous development and deepening of the scientific and technological revolution, the breakthrough point of technological innovation has also developed from technological breakthroughs in a single field to technological breakthroughs in multiple fields. For example, the first scientific and technological revolution was born with the power machinery technology with the steam engine as the core, and the cotton textile technology with the Jenny machine and the water-powered spinning machine as the core. The second scientific and technological revolution made breakthroughs in power technology, chemical industry technology, telecommunications technology, etc., resulting in the invention of generators, power stations, electric lights, wireless telegraphy, etc. The third technological innovation breakthrough is more and wider than the previous two, for example, the breakthrough in space technology gave birth to artificial earth satellites and space stations; Breakthroughs in atomic energy technology gave birth to atomic bombs, hydrogen bombs, and nuclear power stations; Breakthroughs in electronic computer technology gave birth to tubes, transistors, integrated circuits, etc. It is foreseeable that the fourth scientific and technological revolution will have more breakthrough points in technological innovation, bring more extensive industrial innovation, and form new quality productive forces with more contemporary characteristics. Second, in terms of factor allocation, key elements have a leading, irreplaceable and synergistic role. When the development of human society has entered a new era, the three elements of the formation of productive forces, namely, laborers, labor objects, and labor materials, have been qualitatively improved than before, the skills of laborers, that is, the level of human capital, have been improved faster and faster, the labor materials, that is, knowledge and technology, and production tools have become more and more advanced, the labor objects have become more and more diversified, and the scope of labor objects has become broader and wider, which has had a far-reaching impact on the development of modern advanced productive forces in terms of quantity, quality, and type. However, the key elements that can really bring industrial innovation and form new quality productivity are scarce, and as a leading factor in the combination of factors, they play a leading role in the direction of factor allocation, and have irreplaceable and synergistic functions in the optimization of factor structure. For example, Boeing plans to take advantage of Japan's world leadership in hydrogen energy technology and carbon fiber material technology to announce the manufacture of the world's first large hydrogen aircraft in 2027, and set up a fuselage manufacturing base in Nagoya, Japan, because the global hydrogen energy research and development highland is here, and the fuselage material is no longer aluminum alloy, but the carbon fiber material of Toray Corporation of Japan. Obviously, hydrogen energy and carbon fiber are irreplaceable scarce elements in the transformation of the factor configuration structure of Boeing 787 aircraft manufacturing, which play a leading role in the configuration of many elements of 787 aircraft manufacturing and have synergistic functions. Another example is the Tokyo Bay Olympian Village, renamed Harumi Banner, the world's first hydrogen community, which can accommodate 4,500 households. Every home has a hydrogen battery installed. A large-scale hydrogen refueling station and basic hydrogen power generation station have been set up on the edge of the community, and hydrogen energy can be turned into electricity and transmitted to each household, and the hydrogen energy battery of each household can maintain the electricity needs for a week in the event of a power outage such as ** and tsunami. Obviously, in this community, hydrogen energy has become the basic energy of the community, affecting all aspects of the community's daily life. Third, in terms of industrial innovation, the transformation of business formats is a symbol of the new era. Different from the traditional productive forces, the industries formed by the new quality productive forces often have new technological processes and new kinetic energy equipment, which has led to the emergence of a number of new industries, new models and new formats, and at the same time, the traditional industries have undergone qualitative changes after transformation. For example, the textile and garment manufacturing industry is originally a labor-intensive industry, which requires a large amount of labor in the allocation of factors. However, after intelligent and digital transformation, after a large number of robots replace labor in the allocation of factors, the textile and garment industry has changed from a labor-intensive industry to a capital and technology-intensive industry. For example, compared with the automobile industry powered by fossil energy, the new energy electric vehicle industry with the concept of green and sustainable development can reduce air pollution, alleviate the pressure of energy shortage, adopt new power control and new drive technology, and the production technology principle, process route, and design structure have undergone revolutionary changes. Recently, Toyota announced that it will use a major breakthrough in all-solid-state battery technology to launch all-solid-state battery pure electric vehicles in 2027-2028, with extended charging life and improved efficiency, and a range of 1200 kilometers or even 1500 kilometers in 10 minutes. The large-scale promotion and application of all-solid-state battery technology in the automobile industry may be a sign of the times for the development of the automobile industry, which means that new energy vehicles will completely replace fuel vehicles and become a new era for the development of the automobile industry. Fourth, products and services are creative in terms of output results. Compared with traditional productivity, new quality productivity has a stronger creative ability and can create richer, more diverse, better and more efficient products and services for human beings. Different from the traditional production mode of high input, high consumption and high emission, the industrial output brought by the new quality productivity is low-carbon (zero-carbon) green, the added value of products and the quality of the ecological environment are both improved, and the supply effectiveness and demand adaptability are both enhanced. The new quality productivity can not only create a number of new products or services that change the traditional way of life, such as robots, smart cars, smart homes, large aircraft made of carbon fiber materials, artificial human organs, solid-state battery cars, 3D printers, etc., but also through the transformation of traditional industries to make product functions be newly extended, quality to be further improved, and demand space to achieve new expansion.
Ways and countermeasures to speed up the development of new quality productive forces.
The emergence and development of new quality productive forces will bring about earth-shaking changes in human society. The development of new quality productive forces is conducive to promoting Chinese-style modernization and accelerating the process of realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. First of all, the new quality of productivity adopts a new technological route and a new allocation of kinetic energy, whether it is the transformation of traditional industries or the development of emerging industries, can provide new kinetic energy for further economic development. Secondly, the new quality of productivity has given birth to emerging industries and strategic emerging industries, the formation and development of these industries will play a leading role in the transformation of supply structure and demand structure through the industrial chain. Therefore, it is of great significance to China to focus on the development of emerging industries and strategic emerging industries. Third, the formation and development of new productive forces has also brought new impetus to the reform of systems and mechanisms. The state of the productive forces determines the nature of the relations of production, and what kind of productive forces there will be what kind of relations of production. The formation and development of the new quality of productive forces requires that society must reform the traditional system and social governance methods that inhibit and hinder the development of the new quality of the productive forces, and provide a new type of production relations that match the new quality of the productive forces. As a result, a new type of institutional mechanism that is compatible with the new quality of productive forces will inevitably emerge. The core of the formation and development of new productive forces lies in innovation, the key lies in cultivating new momentum for economic development, and the focus is on the formation of new industries. In terms of developing new quality productive forces, China not only has many advantages and conditions, but also has some shortcomings and challenges. For example, after more than 40 years of reform and opening up, China has formed a strong comprehensive national strength, has accumulated technological innovation conditions for many years, has a huge domestic market demand space, and has a certain basic support for the transformation and upgrading of industrial structure. All these have provided rare favorable conditions for the development of new quality productive forces. However, it is also necessary to note that China's original innovation ability is not strong enough, the support of human capital is insufficient, especially the lack of leading talents to achieve disruptive breakthroughs in scientific and technological innovation, there are many uncertainties in the international development environment, and the reform of systems and mechanisms is still on the way, which will form a bottleneck constraint on the development of new quality productivity. To this end, the following paths and countermeasures are proposed. The first is to carry out breakthrough innovation around key core technologies in key areas, cultivate and develop new industrial clusters, and promote the formation of new quality productivity. In recent years, although China has made breakthroughs in scientific and technological innovation in the fields of supercomputers, quantum communications, 5G and 6G technology, artificial intelligence, biotechnology (genetic engineering), new energy (new energy vehicles and nuclear fusion technology), Internet of Things technology, aerospace technology and other fields, there are still many shortcomings from the perspective of developing new quality productivity to drive industrial innovation. For example, the supply of some major technical equipment is prominent, the controllable level of core basic components is low, the development of industrial software and control systems is seriously constrained, the risk of safety availability of key basic materials is rising, and the high-end instruments and equipment required for R&D and testing are heavily dependent on foreign countries. In the future, China should concentrate its advantages and innovation resources to make up for its weaknesses, and gather interdisciplinary, cross-field and cross-departmental scientific and technological forces to carry out leading and subversive scientific and technological research actions. A number of policies to support innovation have been promulgated and implemented, a number of large-scale scientific and technological research projects have been selected and established, a number of collaborative innovation platforms have been built, a number of original innovation sources have been built, a number of industrialized application projects have been promoted, and a number of emerging industrial clusters have been cultivated and developed. Focusing on artificial intelligence, digital neural networks, ultra-large-scale computing power, new-generation communications, deep-space and deep-sea technology, new-generation materials, new-generation Internet, biotechnology, new energy and other fields, we will build an innovation chain from basic research, technology application, product research and development to industrialization, and promote the transformation of scientific and technological innovation into new quality productivity. The second is to carry out breakthrough innovation around key core technologies, relax market access, give equal access to state-owned and private capital, fully mobilize the initiative and enthusiasm of different market players to participate in innovation and develop emerging industries, create a good institutional and policy environment, provide special financial support for the innovation activities of enterprises, increase the pre-tax deduction of enterprise R&D investment, reduce the implementation of income tax exemption for enterprises to carry out scientific and technological innovation, and implement tax reduction and exemption policies for the transfer and transformation of technological achievements. Establish scientific research venture capital** to reduce the risk cost of scientific and technological innovation. Encourage and support enterprises of different ownership systems to carry out fair competition in scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation, and promote them to rapidly grow into leading enterprises in the development of emerging industries or leading enterprises in the industrial chain. The third is to comprehensively improve human capital and provide talent guarantee for accelerating the formation of new quality productivity. Talent is the first resource of innovation and the key element of forming new quality productivity. In the process of forming advanced productive forces, people are the main body of innovation activities, and the level of human capital is the decisive factor for whether science and technology can achieve breakthrough innovation. Therefore, it is necessary to establish a set of incentive mechanisms for special talents, and take talents as an important engine for breakthrough innovation. Explore diversified talent training models, create a group of strategic talents, cultivate and introduce a group of leading talents, and focus on cultivating a group of application-oriented talents to serve the development of new quality productivity. Implement systems and policies conducive to the growth of high-quality talents, create conditions in terms of scientific research funds, test equipment, working and living environment, and attract scientific research personnel to be willing to innovate, concentrate on innovation, and make bold innovations. Preferential policies will be given in terms of property rights recognition, income distribution, individual income tax reduction, social status, achievement evaluation and recognition, etc., to encourage scientific researchers to innovate. Encourage researchers to emancipate their minds, support them to reduce non-essential social activities, and devote more energy and time to professional fields to engage in innovative work. Fourth, it is necessary to promote the reform of systems and mechanisms and remove obstacles to the development of new productive forces. The development of new quality productive forces requires a new type of production relations, which requires the market to play a decisive role in the allocation of resources, and at the same time to play a better role. Form a new system and mechanism that is market-oriented, enterprise-oriented, and better provides public services. Through the reform of the system and mechanism, we should optimize the innovation environment, break through the blockages and stuck points in the process of forming new quality productivity, promote the free flow of resource elements, especially scarce elements, and realize the efficient allocation of resource elements. Treat the innovation activities of enterprises with different ownership systems equally, and create open, fair, relaxed and inclusive market competition rules to stimulate the innovation vitality of various market entities. We will further promote the reform of various property rights systems, including property rights and intellectual property rights, and provide institutional support for accelerating the formation of new quality productive forces. In addition, the development of new quality productive forces requires a high level of opening up, and we should further promote institutional opening-up, open up market access to the greatest extent, attract foreign capital and foreign enterprises to the greatest extent, and actively develop a new type of international relations, which will provide a strong impetus for the formation of advanced productive forces. (The author is a former vice president and researcher of the China Academy of Macroeconomics).
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Chief Producer丨Wang Hui.
Producer丨Li Piguang, Wang Yu, Liu Weimin.
Editor-in-Chief丨Mao Jinghui Editor丨Chen Shuhan.