**Editor’s Note:** Over the last 75 years, our party has brought together the people to weave an extraordinary historical narrative. This journey has led us to forge a path of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics that reflects our national context. In honor of the 75th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China, the Theory Network of Learning Times is launching a video series titled “Why We Insist on This Path.” This series features ten experts from the Xi Jinping Research Center for Socialism with Chinese Characteristics in the New Era, who will discuss the key avenues of China’s development.
**Featured Expert:**
**Liu Zhen**
Tenured Professor, School of Marxism, Tsinghua University
**Topic of Discussion:**
Why is developing new quality productivity an inherent requirement and a crucial focus for promoting high-quality development?
**Interview Transcript:**
**Host:**
During the 11th collective study session of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee in January 2024, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that “developing new quality productivity is an inherent requirement and an important focal point for promoting high-quality development.” Can you explain what nurturing new quality productivity means, and how do we begin this process?
**Liu Zhen:**
On September 7, 2023, General Secretary Xi Jinping introduced the notion of new quality productivity at a symposium aimed at revitalizing Northeast China. He stated, “We must actively cultivate strategic emerging industries such as new energy, new materials, advanced manufacturing, and electronic information, along with future industries that will enhance new development momentum.” The following day, in a report from Heilongjiang’s provincial party committee and government, he stressed the importance of “integrating resources for technological innovation to lead the development of strategic emerging and future industries, thereby accelerating the formation of new quality productivity.” These exchanges represent a significant progression in the Marxist theory of productivity, broadening the scope of Xi Jinping’s economic thought and reflecting our party’s growing understanding of productivity. This shift offers scientific guidance for promoting high-quality development and modernization with Chinese characteristics.
From a Marxist political economics perspective, productivity encapsulates humanity’s capacity to innovate and master nature. This capacity is dynamic, advancing alongside the evolution of science and technology. New quality productivity, emerging from groundbreaking technological innovations, innovative configurations of production factors, and comprehensive industry transformations, embodies sophisticated contemporary productivity. It necessitates a qualitative shift in laborers, labor resources, and labor objects, with core indicators centered on improvements in overall factor productivity. Accelerating the development of new quality productivity is not just a goal; it is a necessity for liberating and advancing productivity in our new era, as well as a crucial step for enhancing the iteration, upgrading, and modernization of productive forces.
Three key points are essential for fostering and enhancing new quality productivity:
1. **Developing a Skilled Workforce:** This involves cultivating individuals with strategic skills who can create new quality productivity and effectively utilize new resources. The workforce aligned with new quality productivity should be knowledgeable, trained, and innovative, equipped with advanced cognitive and practical skills. It’s crucial to strengthen talent development and recruitment to elevate laborers’ qualifications and skills in response to the demands of new quality productivity. The report from the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party highlighted the urgency of constructing a national strategic talent force, nurturing more experts, strategic scientists, top-tier technology leaders, innovative teams, young scientific talents, exemplary engineers, skilled artisans, and high-skill workers.
2. **Harnessing New Production Tools:** Mastering critical core technologies that empower emerging industries is essential. Emphasizing research and development, along with the application of cutting-edge technologies, is key to enhancing production efficiency and product quality. The development of new quality productivity is largely driven by technological innovation, making the advancement of new industries a top priority. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out during this year’s National People’s Congress sessions that enhancing new quality productivity does not entail sidelining traditional industries. Instead, he advocated for a balanced approach that integrates traditional industry upgrades, emerging industry growth, and future industry cultivation— all guided by technological innovation. By analyzing the trends of technological revolutions and industrial change, we can see that new quality productivity can catalyze growth in power industries, leading industries, new infrastructure, and derivative industries, which will create a cohesive technical and industrial system.
3. **Establishing Compatible Production Relations:** It is essential to reform the structures that impede the development of new quality productivity to ensure the effective and efficient allocation of advanced production factors. Accelerating the development of new productivity elements such as data and computing power requires enhancing data supply quality, refining market mechanisms, and innovating strategies for data utilization to unlock the data dividend. Policies and institutional innovations must be aligned with the needs of new quality productivity growth. By fostering regional cooperation and optimizing market economic systems, we can facilitate the rational allocation of production factors, leverage comparative advantages, and build a modernized industrial structure.
**Host:**
As we develop new quality productivity, the role of government appears to be pivotal. How crucial is it to manage the relationship between government and market dynamics?
**Liu Zhen:**
Managing the relationship between government and market forces is indeed critical. On one side, we must solidify the role of enterprises as the primary agents of technological innovation. For example, the Hunan Steel Group in central China has made remarkable strides in this area, with over 62% of its sales coming from key steel products that supply high-quality materials for major projects like the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge and Beijing’s Daxing International Airport. However, the nature of innovation involves uncertainties that can complicate immediate investment returns, particularly for emerging tech companies which often face financing challenges. Therefore, nurturing new quality productivity requires increased financial resources and strategic long-term investments.
On the flip side, the government needs to play a supportive role. It should guide the development of foundational and key technologies, invest in technological advancements, and collaborate with enterprises along the supply chain to provide fiscal and tax incentives. Institutional mechanisms must also be reformed to ensure alignment of production relationships with the forces of production. General Secretary Xi emphasized the importance of “seizing high-quality development as our primary task” during this year’s sessions, urging localities to identify their unique advantages based on their resources, industrial foundations, and research capabilities. This balanced approach promotes traditional industry upgrades, emerging industries, and the nurturing of future industries.
Cities like Guiyang are capitalizing on their computing network strengths to build robust digital foundations for artificial intelligence, concentrating on data training and smart manufacturing. Each region must understand its role within national strategies, create an environment conducive to innovation, and enhance original innovation capabilities. By integrating industrial policies with economic, financial policies, and talent development, we can pave the way for new industries, business models, and driving forces essential for constructing a modernized industrial system that fosters high-quality development.
