Use the New Development Philosophy to Guide the Faster Formation of New Quality Productive Forces

General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed at the 11th collective study session of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee that “developing new quality productive forces is an intrinsic requirement and an important focal point for promoting high-quality development” and that “new quality productive forces have already taken shape in practice and demonstrated a strong driving force and supporting capacity for high-quality development.” As a type of productive forces that constitute an entirely new qualitative state of the factors of production, new quality productive forces embody the leap of old quality productive forces in economic development and represent the latest requirement that high-quality economic development imposes on the iterative upgrading of productive forces. Rooted in the new stage of development, “adhering to innovative development, coordinated development, green development, open development, and shared development is a profound transformation that affects the overall situation of China’s development.” Using the new development philosophy to guide the faster formation of new quality productive forces is of great significance for promoting China’s high-quality economic development, seizing the commanding heights of international competition, and winning the initiative in modernization.

习近平总书记在中共中央政治局第十一次集体学习时强调，“发展新质生产力是推动高质量发展的内在要求和重要着力点”，“新质生产力已经在实践中形成并展示出对高质量发展的强劲推动力、支撑力”。新质生产力作为要素构成全新质态的生产力，体现了经济发展中旧质生产力的跃迁，是经济高质量发展对生产力迭代升级的最新要求。而立足新发展阶段，“坚持创新发展、协调发展、绿色发展、开放发展、共享发展，是关系我国发展全局的一场深刻变革”。以新发展理念引领新质生产力加快形成，对推动我国经济高质量发展、抢占国际竞争制高点、赢得现代化建设主动权具有重要意义。

Guiding the faster formation of new quality productive forces with the concept of innovative development. Innovative development focuses on solving the problem of the driving force for development. Under the circumstances of increasingly fierce international development competition and the transformation of domestic development drivers, only by placing the foundation of development on innovation can we create more growth points that rely on innovation-driven growth and give fuller play to the advantages of high technology. Since the New Era, China has achieved notable results in innovation-driven development, with a steady stream of major innovation outcomes. Some frontier areas have entered a stage of running side by side with or even leading the world. The construction of high-speed railways and 5G networks is world-leading, and major breakthroughs have been made in fields such as manned spaceflight and Mars exploration. Scientific and technological innovation is moving from the accumulation of quantity to a qualitative leap, and from breakthroughs in individual points to systemic improvement. Productive forces are no longer generally backward, and the foundation for developing high-quality productive forces has been laid. Emerging industries driven by new quality productive forces provide a strong development momentum for China’s economy and will effectively raise China’s scientific and technological strength and comprehensive national power in the world. However, we must also soberly recognize the shortcomings: there are weaknesses on the supply side of China’s emerging scientific and technological productive forces, the problem of unbalanced and insufficient development of productive forces remains prominent, the proportion of basic research investment is still not high, the competitiveness of strategic industries related to national security is insufficient, the conversion rate of scientific research results is low, the task of upgrading and transforming traditional manufacturing is relatively heavy, and some key core technologies are still controlled by others. Therefore, it is urgent to use the concept of innovative development to improve the quality of productive forces development, to lead the comprehensive revitalization of industry with scientific and technological innovation, and to build new competitive advantages through industrial upgrading.

以创新发展理念引领新质生产力加快形成。创新发展注重解决发展动力问题。在国际发展竞争日趋激烈和国内发展动能转换的形势下，只有把发展的基点放在创新上，才能塑造更多依靠创新驱动、更多发挥高科技优势的发展增长点。新时代以来，我国创新驱动发展成效明显，重大创新成果竞相涌现，部分前沿领域开始进入并跑、领跑阶段，高速铁路、5G网络等建设世界领先，载人航天、火星探测等领域实现重大突破，科技创新正在从量的积累迈向质的飞跃，从点的突破迈向系统提升。生产力不再整体落后，发展优质生产力的基础已经形成。以新质生产力为驱动内核的新兴产业为我国经济发展提供强劲发展动能，将有效提升我国在世界上的科技实力和综合国力。但也必须清醒看到不足之处，我国新兴科技生产力的供给侧存在短板，生产力发展不平衡不充分问题仍然突出，基础研究投入比还不高，关涉国家安全的战略性产业竞争力不足，科研成果转化率较低，传统制造业升级转型任务较为繁重，部分关键核心技术仍然受制于人，因此亟须用创新发展理念提升生产力发展质量、以科技创新引领产业全面振兴、以产业升级构筑新竞争优势。

Guiding the faster formation of new quality productive forces with the concept of coordinated development. Coordinated development focuses on solving the problem of unbalanced development. Only by adhering to regional synergy, urban-rural integration, equal emphasis on material and cultural-ethical progress, and the integration of economic construction with national defense construction can we broaden development space through coordinated development and enhance development momentum by strengthening weak areas. This reflects the coordination of new quality productive forces. General Secretary Xi Jinping proposed new quality productive forces during his inspection of Northeast China, which itself carries profound meaning. The Northeast region is a traditional center for the development of China’s productive forces, yet its regional development, industrial progress, and people’s living standards lag behind its own resource advantages. Therefore, promoting the transformation of economic development in the Northeast is a scientific move to cultivate emerging industries and develop new quality productive forces. When the level of economic development is low, the main task for a period of time is to run fast. But after running a certain distance, attention must be paid to adjusting relationships and focusing on the overall effectiveness of development. Otherwise, the “cask effect” will become increasingly evident, and a series of social contradictions will emerge. To uphold coordinated development, we must firmly grasp the overall plan for building socialism with Chinese characteristics, correctly handle major relationships in development, and focus on promoting coordinated development between urban and rural areas and among regions, coordinated economic and social development, the simultaneous development of the new type of industrialization, informationization, urbanization, and agricultural modernization, the balanced construction of the pattern of productive forces, and the enhancement of the overall effectiveness of productive forces development.

以协调发展理念引领新质生产力加快形成。协调发展注重解决发展的不平衡问题。只有坚持区域协同、城乡一体、物质文明精神文明并重、经济建设和国防建设融合，才能在协调发展中拓宽发展空间，在加强薄弱领域中增强发展后劲，这体现了新质生产力的协调性。新质生产力是习近平总书记在考察东北时提出的，本身就具有深意。东北地区是我国传统生产力发展的重镇，地区发展、产业进步、人民生活水平滞后于其本身资源优势条件，因此推动东北地区经济发展转型，就是培育新兴产业、发展新质生产力的科学举措。在经济发展水平落后的情况下，一段时间的主要任务是跑得快，但跑过一定路程后，就要注意调整关系，注重发展的整体效能，否则“木桶效应”就会愈加显现，一系列社会矛盾就会凸显。坚持协调发展，必须牢牢把握中国特色社会主义事业总体布局，正确处理发展中的重大关系，重点促进城乡区域协调发展，促进经济社会协调发展，促进新型工业化、信息化、城镇化、农业现代化同步发展，促进生产力格局的均衡构建，提升生产力发展的整体效能。

Guiding the faster formation of new quality productive forces with the concept of green development. Green development focuses on solving the problem of harmony between humanity and nature in development. The expression of new quality productive forces in the ecological field is ecological productive forces and green productive forces. This requires achieving green economic development, pursuing sustainability, and emphasizing the unity of economic, ecological, and social benefits. As China enters the new normal of economic development, it means the transformation from a traditional economic development mode to an advanced one. Traditional industries that are high-input, high-consumption, and high-pollution must transform into new industries that offer good economic returns, low resource consumption, and light environmental pollution. This transformation relies on new quality productive forces. To uphold green development, we must firmly establish the concept that lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets, adhere to the basic state policy of conserving resources and protecting the environment, adhere to sustainable development, resolutely follow a civilized development path that ensures production development, affluent living, and a sound ecosystem, accelerate the building of a resource-conserving and environmentally friendly society, form a new pattern of modernization in which humanity and nature develop in harmony, advance the construction of a Beautiful China, and make new contributions to global ecological security. China has made a solemn commitment to the world to achieve peak carbon and carbon neutrality. It is necessary to integrate peak carbon and carbon neutrality into the overall economic and social development, unswervingly follow the path of high-quality development that prioritizes ecological protection and promotes green and low-carbon growth, vigorously promote the green transformation of economic and social development, and accelerate the formation of a spatial pattern, industrial structure, mode of production, and way of life that conserve resources and protect the environment. This provides the fundamental guidance for green development and lays the ecological foundation for new quality productive forces.

以绿色发展理念引领新质生产力加快形成。绿色发展注重解决发展中人与自然的和谐问题。新质生产力在生态领域的表达就是生态生产力、绿色生产力，其要求实现经济绿色发展，追求可持续，注重经济效益、生态效益和社会效益的统一。我国进入经济发展新常态，意味着传统经济发展方式向先进经济发展方式转变，高投入、高消耗、高污染的传统工业必须向经济效益好、资源消耗少、环境污染轻的新型工业转型，这就要靠新质生产力来拉动。坚持绿色发展，必须牢固树立绿水青山就是金山银山理念，坚持节约资源和保护环境的基本国策，坚持可持续发展，坚定走生产发展、生活富裕、生态良好的文明发展道路，加快建设资源节约型、环境友好型社会，形成人与自然和谐发展现代化建设新格局，推进美丽中国建设，为全球生态安全作出新贡献。我国已向世界作出实现碳达峰、碳中和的庄严承诺，必须把碳达峰、碳中和纳入经济社会发展全局，坚定不移走生态优先、绿色低碳的高质量发展道路，大力推动经济社会发展绿色转型，加快形成节约资源和保护环境的空间格局、产业结构、生产方式、生活方式。这提供了绿色发展的根本遵循，铺就新质生产力的生态底色。

Guiding the faster formation of new quality productive forces with the concept of open development. Open development focuses on solving the problem of internal and external linkages. Only by enriching the connotation of opening up, raising the level of opening up, and jointly advancing strategic mutual trust, economic and trade cooperation, and people-to-people and cultural exchanges with the international community can we create a new situation of opening up and enhance the overall effectiveness of productive forces development. In Marx’s era, the establishment and development of new modes of production driven by industrial productive forces made “the production and consumption of all countries become cosmopolitan,” integrating the whole world. New technologies and inventions have an increasingly global influence, and the bonding role of advanced productive forces on the entire world is becoming more evident. “If a machine is invented in England that takes away the jobs of countless workers in India and China and causes a change in the whole form of existence of these countries, this invention becomes a world-historical fact.” [1]1 Marx’s observation in *The Poverty of Philosophy* (1847), underlining the global impact of technological change. The sharing nature of productive forces was already evident at that time. Today, the new quality productive forces created by technological change, with the support of more convenient transportation and communication methods, will affect the world more extensively and benefit humanity. Therefore, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasizes that “science and technology are global and contemporary, and developing science and technology must have a global vision.” At the same time, actively integrating into the world pattern is an inevitable move to promote the transformation of old and new drivers of domestic productive forces and to form new quality productive forces. To uphold open development, we must follow the trend of China’s economy deeply integrating into world development, pursue an open strategy of mutual benefit and win-win cooperation, adhere to the coordination of domestic and external demand, the balance of imports and exports, equal emphasis on bringing in and going global, and the simultaneous attraction of capital, technology, and talent. We must develop a higher-level open economy, actively participate in global economic governance and the provision of public goods, enhance China’s say in the global development of productive forces, and build a broad community of interests conducive to the further improvement of China’s productive forces.

以开放发展理念引领新质生产力加快形成。开放发展注重解决内外联动问题。只有丰富对外开放内涵，提高对外开放水平，协同推进同国际社会的战略互信、经贸合作、人文交流，才能开创对外开放新局面，提升生产力发展的整体效能。在马克思所处时代，由工业生产力发展导致的新的生产方式的确立和发展使得“一切国家的生产和消费都成为世界性的了”，整个世界连为一体。新技术、新发明越来越具有全球影响力，先进生产力对整个世界的纽带作用愈发显明。“如果在英国发明了一种机器，它夺走了印度和中国的无数劳动者的饭碗，并引起这些国家的整个生存形式的改变，那么，这个发明便成为一个世界历史性的事实。”当时生产力的共享性质已然凸显，在今日，技术变革造就的新质生产力在更加便利的交通、交流方式的加持下，将会更广泛影响世界、造福人类。因此，习近平总书记强调，“科学技术是世界性的、时代性的，发展科学技术必须具有全球视野”。同时，主动融入世界格局是促进国内生产力新旧动能转换和形成新质生产力的必然之举，坚持开放发展，必须顺应我国经济深度融入世界发展的趋势，奉行互利共赢的开放战略，坚持内外需协调、进出口平衡、引进来和走出去并重、引资和引技引智并举，发展更高层次的开放型经济，积极参与全球经济治理和公共产品供给，提高我国在全球生产力发展中的话语权，构建广泛的有利于我国生产力水平进一步提升的利益共同体。

Guiding the faster formation of new quality productive forces with the concept of shared development. Shared development focuses on solving the problem of social fairness and justice. Only by allowing the broad masses of the people to share the fruits of reform and development can the superiority of the socialist system be truly reflected. “Making the cake bigger” and “dividing the cake well” are contradictions of productive forces and relations of production at the level of sharing. Relying on traditional productive forces, it is difficult to continue to make the cake bigger and better. New quality productive forces provide sufficient momentum for “making the cake bigger.” The continuous accumulation and full development of productive forces are conducive to achieving “cake sharing” at a higher level. China has historically solved the problem of absolute poverty that had plagued the Chinese nation for thousands of years, and the overall living standards of the Chinese people have been continuously improved. This is all the result of the long-term development of China’s productive forces. With the resolution of absolute poverty, the people’s needs are now mainly manifested in the desire for a better life. The need for a better life is based on the development of new quality productive forces, and development must pay more attention to questions of “whether it’s good,” “whether it’s excellent,” and “whether it’s refined.” New quality productive forces can be transformed into people’s wellbeing. Specifically, in material life, new quality productive forces can provide better services and more diverse supply, realizing “technology empowering a better life.” In social life, new technologies can ensure food and drug safety, assist in the treatment and prevention of major diseases, and effectively alleviate people’s suffering from illness. In cultural life, new quality productive forces promote the production of more cultural products, continually enriching people’s spiritual world. We must use the supply side led by advanced productive forces to meet the growing and diversified demand side of the people. This is also the practical need to “let the fruits of modernization benefit all the people more and more fairly.”

以共享发展理念引领新质生产力加快形成。共享发展注重解决社会公平正义问题。只有让广大人民群众共享改革发展成果，才能真正体现社会主义制度优越性。“做大蛋糕”和“分好蛋糕”是生产力与生产关系在共享层面的矛盾，依靠传统生产力，“蛋糕”很难持续做大做优，新质生产力提供了“做大蛋糕”的充足动力源，生产力的不断积累和充分发展有利于在更高层面上实现“蛋糕共享”。我国历史性地解决了困扰中华民族几千年的绝对贫困问题，中国人民总体生活水平不断提高，这都是我国生产力长期发展的结果。随着绝对贫困问题的解决，人民群众的需要着重体现在美好生活层面上，而美好生活之需以新质生产力为发展基底，发展就需要更加关注“好不好”“优不优”“精不精”的问题。新质生产力可转化为民生福祉。具体来说，在物质生活上，新质生产力能够提供更优质的服务、更多元的供给，实现“科技赋能美好生活”；在社会生活上，新技术能够保障食品药品安全、助力重大疾病的治疗和防控，切实解决人民疾病之苦；在文化生活上，新质生产力促进生产更多的文化产品，不断丰富人民的精神世界。要以先进生产力为主导的供给侧对接人民日益增长的、多元化的需求侧，这也是“让现代化建设成果更多更公平惠及全体人民”的现实之需。

(The author is Secretary of the Party Committee and Professor of the School of Marxism at Xi’an Jiaotong University)

（作者系西安交通大学马克思主义学院党委书记、教授）

Online Editor: Hui Hui

网络编辑：慧慧