Xi stresses development of new productive forces, high-quality development

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, has urged efforts to accelerate the development of new productive forces and firmly promote high-quality development.

Xi made the remarks on Wednesday while presiding over a group study session of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

He stressed that high-quality development is an unyielding principle in the new era.

"Developing new productive forces is the intrinsic requirement and an important focus of promoting high-quality development, and it's necessary to continue to well leverage innovation to speed up the development of new productive forces," Xi said.

Noting that promoting high-quality development has become the consensus and conscious action of the whole Party and society in the new era, Xi said there are still many factors restricting high-quality development, which must be guided by a new productivity theory.

With innovation playing the leading role, new productive forces mean advanced productivity that is free from traditional economic growth mode and productivity development paths, features high technology, high efficiency, and high quality, and comes in line with the new development philosophy, said Xi.

New productive forces are driven by revolutionary technological breakthroughs, innovative allocation of production factors, and deep industrial transformation and upgrading, taking the improvement of workers, means of labor, subjects of labor and their optimal combinations as its basic connotation, and a substantial increase in total factor productivity as its core hallmark, Xi said.

Marked by innovation and with high quality as the key, new productive forces are, in essence, advanced productivity, Xi said.

He said sci-tech innovation can generate new industries, models and growth drivers, which are the core elements of developing new productive forces.

Xi called for strengthening sci-tech innovation, especially original and disruptive innovation, accelerating the realization of high-level self-reliance in science and technology, and fighting hard for breakthroughs in core technologies in key fields so that original and disruptive sci-tech innovation outcomes can keep emerging for fostering new growth drivers of new productive forces.

Xi stressed that sci-tech innovations should be applied to specific industries and industrial chains in a timely manner. Efforts should be made to transform and upgrade traditional industries, foster emerging industries, make arrangements for future industries, and improve the modern industrial system.

Xi highlighted enhanced efforts to develop the digital economy, promote the deep integration of the digital economy and the real economy, and build digital industrial clusters with international competitiveness.

New productive forces are in itself green productive forces, Xi said. In this regard, efforts should be made to expedite the green transformation of growth models and contribute to carbon peaking and carbon neutrality.

Xi also pointed out the need to strengthen green manufacturing, develop green services, foster green energy, advance green and low-carbon industries and supply chains, and establish a green and low-carbon circular economy system.

The economic policy toolbox to support green and low-carbon development will be optimized continuously to give play to the driving role of green finance, according to Xi.

"We should further deepen reform in an all-round way and form a new type of relations of production appropriate to the development of new productive forces," Xi said.

Xi stressed efforts to deepen reforms of the economic system and the science and technology management system, work hard to remove bottlenecks that hinder the development of new productive forces and establish a high-standard market system.

Xi underlined efforts to smooth the virtuous cycle of education, science, technology and talent in accordance with the requirement of developing new productive forces and improving the mechanism of talent training, introduction, use and flow.

(Cover: The skyline of Shanghai, China, October 26, 2023. /CFP)