Driving development with new quality productive forces

Editor's note: China Daily's Business Insight section has launched a column devoted to an in-depth interpretation of Xi Jinping's economic thought, with this article serving as the debut piece of the new series.

The 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-30) is a crucial timeframe for laying a solid foundation to basically realize socialist modernization. The fourth plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China requires remarkable results in advancing high-quality development, and major breakthroughs are needed in developing new quality productive forces, fostering a new development pattern and building a modernized economic system.

This requires a thorough understanding of the important discourses by Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, on new quality productive forces.

It is crucial for us to understand the relationship between new quality productive forces and high-quality development.

Xi characterized new quality productive forces as an advanced productivity state, in which innovation plays the leading role. The forces break away from traditional economic growth modes, feature high technology, high efficiency and high quality, and align with the new development philosophy. Developing new quality productive forces is an intrinsic requirement and an important focus for promoting high-quality development.

Productivity is the fundamental driving force of human social development. High-quality development requires the guidance of new productivity theories. Because new quality productive forces have already taken shape in practice and demonstrated strong driving power, they serve as the guiding theory and robust driving force for high-quality development.

In the new era, China has liberated productive forces through comprehensively deepening reform and high-standard opening-up, positioning innovation as the primary driver. Integrating ecological civilization into national development and asserting that protecting the environment means protecting productive forces are vital theoretical outcomes. Grasping this principle is essential to propel high-quality development during the modernization journey.

It is also important for China to accelerate new quality productive forces through innovation.

The distinguishing feature of new quality productive forces is innovation, which encompasses aspects of technology, business models, management styles and institutional innovation. It is imperative to excel in this major task to accelerate their development.

The basic path involves advancing sci-tech innovation for revolutionary breakthroughs and driving industrial innovation for deep transformation, thereby significantly increasing total factor productivity. As China embarks on a new modernization journey, focus must be placed on four aspects.

First, it is necessary to catalyze new quality productive forces guided by high-level sci-tech self-reliance and strength. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, China must improve its new system for mobilizing resources nationwide, optimize basic research and development, and strengthen original innovation. Extraordinary measures are needed to achieve decisive breakthroughs in core tech across key fields like integrated circuits, industrial machine tools, high-end instruments, basic software, advanced materials and biomedicine.

Second, accelerated development by deeply integrating sci-tech and industrial innovation is needed. It is crucial to fuse real economy innovation with digital and green technologies. Enterprises' principal role in innovation must be strengthened, resources channeled toward them and support provided for them to lead innovation.

Third, it is necessary to accelerate green productive forces by innovating development modes. Guided by carbon peak and neutrality goals — carbon reduction, pollution reduction, green expansion and economic growth should be synergistically advanced. Deepening pollution prevention, building a new energy system, and expediting the formation of green production modes and lifestyles are necessary steps.

Fourth, constructing compatible relations of production by advancing integrated institutional innovation in education, science and technology and talent is needed. Mechanisms that comprehensively support innovation must be improved to enhance the national innovation system's overall efficacy, focusing on nurturing strategic scientists, leading talents, outstanding engineers and highly skilled personnel.

Building a modernized industrial system is important to support development according to local conditions.

To firmly grasp high-quality development as the primary task, it is necessary to develop new quality productive forces according to local conditions. Facing the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, opportunities must be seized to intensify innovation efforts, cultivate emerging industries, make plans for future industries and improve the modernized industrial system.

Crucially, developing new quality productive forces does not mean ignoring or abandoning traditional industries. It is necessary to prevent headlong rushes and bubble formations, and avoid adopting a single model. All localities must proceed from reality, establish the new before abolishing the old, customize measures to local conditions and provide categorized guidance. Based on local resource endowments, industrial foundations and scientific research conditions, they should selectively promote new industries, use new technologies to transform traditional industries, and actively promote high-end, intelligent and green industrial development.

Promoting industrial innovation through sci-tech innovation is essential for building a modernized industrial system and developing new quality productive forces. The two are interdependent. New quality productive forces are the core capability elements for the modernized industrial system, which serve as their effective carrier. Building this system translates sci-tech achievements into real productive forces, while the system's construction ensures practical economic needs guide sci-tech innovation.

On the one hand, new quality productive forces are achieving a leap in optimizing production factors. Intensive innovation is generating clusters in next-generation information technologies, life sciences, clean energy and advanced manufacturing. These accelerate the iterative leap of productive forces.

On the other hand, the modernized industrial system is developing toward digitalization, intelligence, greening and integration. New quality productive forces are directly reflected in highly penetrative digital and intelligent technologies applied across all sectors and throughout the entire value chain.

China's leadership has emphasized the "consolidation and upgrading" of traditional industries during the 15th Five-Year Plan, calling for enhanced competitiveness in mining, metallurgy, chemicals, light industry, textiles, machinery, shipbuilding and construction. Traditional industries are the "basic fundamentals" of the real economy, accounting for about 80 percent of value-added. To build a modernized industrial system and consolidate the real economy, they must never be abandoned.

The writer is a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and a researcher at the Institute of Economics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.