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Trade tensions, geopolitical conflicts, and economic uncertainties … These are the challenges the world is facing right now.

To tackle these issues, the Summer Davos kicked off in China's Tianjin this week.

Thousands of representatives are gathering here for stronger economies.

As the world's second largest economy, China is shifting its focus to new quality productive forces. With innovation playing the leading role, new quality productive forces feature high-tech, high efficiency, and high quality in line with the new development philosophy.

"Innovation is the secret to economic growth. It is the unmeasurable aspect of economic growth that defines why economies are able to escape from a developmental trap. So, innovation is absolutely crucial. Countries that invest in research and development, countries that invest in education, countries that invest in training and skilling their people do well," said Jeffry A. Frieden, Professor of International and Public Affairs and Political Science at the Columbia University.

The Global Innovation Index 2024 shows China rose from the 12th to the 11th place in just one year, making it one of the fastest-advancing economies of the past decade.

From AI upgrades to breakthroughs in quantum computing and biomanufacturing, China is charting a new economic map for the future.

"We are seeing China playing a very crucial role in the whole EV industry with the launch of the No.1 global market in the EV. China is also actively looking at the next generation, whether it is in hydrogen or nuclear fission or nuclear fusion, which I think is also very important for us as investors. China has also been very innovative in the medical technology segment," said Amit Kakar, Head of Asia of Novo Holdings.

"We believe that China – with its state-of-the-art manufacturing, especially precision manufacturing, innovation, new tools like AI robotics – is going to be transforming the way the world is going to look at China as not just a center of manufacturing, but a center of innovation," Kakar added.

Innovation is powering China's economic growth. In 2024, the industrial added value of national high-tech zones accounted for 24.1 percent of the country's total. Also, the added value of core industries of the digital economy rose to about 10 percent of national GDP last year.

"We survey every quarter chief economist from around the world. There are only two regions in the world where chief economists are positive and optimistic about. One is South Asia and the other is China," said Saadia Zahidi, Managing Director of the World Economic Forum.

"There is a fairly strong view that there will be moderate or strong growth for most of the chief economists. That's what they see happening here. Most of them believe that China will be close to its target of 5 percent if not reaching it. So overall, there's quite a positive outlook as to what will be happening there," Zahidi added.

China's innovation push is not just for its own sake. China has been expanding opening-up and cooperation in the sci-tech sector, and serves the well-being of the international community.

"China plays a very important role. It is, after all, the world's biggest exporter. It's the world's biggest manufacturing power and will soon probably be the world's biggest economy. I think that China plays a major role and will have a big impact on how the world moves forward," said Frieden.

Against protectionist headwinds, China is committed to innovation and cooperation. This may explain why the country's economic growth is higher than anticipated. And, is that also the solution to the challenges the world economy is facing right now?

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