Using Innovation to Empower the Building of Modern People's Cities

Cities are not only centers of economic development but also the main fronts for industrial development and scientific and technological innovation. The Central Conference on Urban Work held in July this year proposed six aspects of connotation for building modern people’s cities, with innovation ranking first, and made specific arrangements for “striving to build innovative cities full of vitality.” [1]1 The Central Conference on Urban Work is a high-level meeting on urban development convened by the CPC Central Committee. The meeting held in July of the current year proposed six aspects of connotation for building modern people’s cities. This not only reflects a strategic shift in urban development thinking and paradigms but also clarifies the practical path of using innovation to empower high-quality urban development. Facing the new situation of a deep restructuring of the global scientific and technological competition landscape and an accelerated transformation of development drivers, it is necessary to accurately grasp the relationship between scientific and technological innovation and the building of modern people’s cities, carefully foster an open, inclusive innovation ecology with efficient allocation of factors, and create a field of innovation vitality for modern people’s cities.

城市既是经济发展的中心，也是产业发展、科技创新的主阵地。今年7月召开的中央城市工作会议提出建设现代化人民城市的6个方面内涵，排在首位的就是创新，并对“着力建设富有活力的创新城市”作出具体部署。这不仅体现了城市发展思路和范式的战略转变，更明确了以创新赋能城市高质量发展的实践路径。面对全球科技竞争格局深度重构、发展动能加速转换的新形势，要准确把握科技创新与现代化人民城市建设的关系，精心营造开放包容、要素高效配置的创新生态，打造现代化人民城市的创新活力场。

First, grasp the repositioning of urban functions, making technology serving the people more prominent. Cities are important spaces for the people’s happy lives. From ancient cities focusing on single functions such as settlement and production, to the later gradual development of four major functions—residence, employment, recreation, and transportation—and then to the composite functions borne by modern cities, such as economy, culture, ecology, services, and the circulation and concentration of resources, urban functions have continuously evolved in the process of adapting to and meeting people’s multi-level needs. Scientific and technological progress has always been the core force driving the improvement of urbanization levels.

其一，把握城市功能再定位，让科技为民更突出。城市是人民幸福生活的重要空间。从古代城市侧重于聚居、生产等单一功能，到后来逐步发展出居住、就业、游憩、交通等四大功能，再到现代城市所承担的经济、文化、生态、服务以及资源流通与汇聚等复合功能，城市功能在不断适应和满足人的多层次需求过程中持续演进，而科技进步始终是推动城市化水平提升的核心力量。

The key to building modern people’s cities is to practice the important concept that “the people build the people’s city, the people’s city serves the people,” restructure the symbiotic logic of “people–industry–city,” highlight “technology serving the people,” uphold fundamental principles and innovate, and truly make cities important spaces that meet people’s development needs. [2]2 “The people build the people’s city, the people’s city serves the people” (人民城市人民建、人民城市为人民) is a guiding principle for people-centered urban development. [3]3 “Upholding fundamental principles and innovating” (守正创新) is a CPC term that refers to adhering to core principles while actively making innovations. First, give equal weight to development and security, taking scientific and technological innovation as the core driving force for building safe and reliable resilient cities. It is necessary to enhance industrial innovation capabilities, ensure self-reliance and controllability of key core technologies, strengthen the flexibility and impact resistance of the innovation chain and supply chain, and improve the stability and competitiveness of the urban economic system. At the same time, it is necessary to extensively apply new-generation information technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and blockchain, explore the establishment of platforms for dynamic risk assessment and simulation and deduction, and improve the level of prediction, prevention, and response to emergencies such as natural disasters and public health incidents. Second, adhere to innovation-driven development, focus on improving urban governance capacity, and build convenient and efficient smart cities. Through the construction of smart government, smart healthcare, smart education, and smart communities, we can raise the accessibility, convenience, and equalization of public services. We should strengthen open innovation in the public sector, integrate cross-departmental and cross-level data resources, realize “one-network unified management” of urban operations, and promote scientific and refined urban governance. [4]4 “One-network unified management” (一网统管) is a governance approach using an integrated digital platform to coordinate urban management across departments and administrative levels. Third, adhere to taking the realization of the people’s aspiration for a better life as the starting point and ultimate goal, and use scientific and technological innovation to promote the construction of beautiful and livable cities. It is necessary to promote the integrated application of technologies related to green buildings, sponge cities, and circular economy to improve the efficiency of urban resource utilization and the quality of the ecological environment, and also to strengthen scientific and technological innovation in the fields of smart elderly care, health technology, and age-friendly technology, continuously enhancing the people’s sense of gain, happiness, and security in the process of modern city building.

建设现代化人民城市，关键要践行“人民城市人民建、人民城市为人民”的重要理念，重构“人—产—城”共生逻辑，凸显“科技为民”，坚持守正创新，使城市真正成为满足人的发展需求的重要空间。一是坚持发展与安全并重，将科技创新作为打造安全可靠的韧性城市的核心驱动力。既要提升产业创新能力，确保关键核心技术自主可控，增强创新链供应链的灵活性和抗冲击能力，提升城市经济系统的稳定性和竞争力，又要广泛应用大数据、人工智能、物联网、区块链等新一代信息技术，探索建立城市风险动态评估与模拟推演平台，提升对自然灾害、公共卫生事件等突发事件的预测、预防和处置水平。二是坚持创新驱动发展，注重提升城市治理能力，打造便捷高效的智慧城市。通过智慧政务、智慧医疗、智慧教育、智慧社区等建设，提升公共服务的可及性、便捷性和均等化水平。加强公共部门开放式创新，整合跨部门、跨层级的数据资源，实现城市运行“一网统管”，促进城市治理科学化、精细化。三是坚持把实现人民对美好生活的向往作为出发点和落脚点，以科技创新促进美丽城市、宜居城市建设。既要推动绿色建筑、海绵城市、循环经济等相关技术的集成应用，提升城市资源利用效率和生态环境质量，还要加强在智慧养老、健康科技及适老化技术领域的科技创新，在现代化城市建设中持续增强人民群众的获得感、幸福感和安全感。

Second, accelerate urban coordination to make innovation vitality stronger. To promote high-quality urban development, we must take innovation as the primary driving force and seek momentum from scientific and technological innovation. The Central Conference on Urban Work proposed focusing on improving the city’s comprehensive carrying capacity for population and economic and social development, and developing organized, networked modern city clusters and metropolitan areas. This highlights that urban development should be good at “looking beyond the local area to see the local area” and find the path of innovative urban development within the coordinated linkages of city clusters and metropolitan areas. Many theoretical studies and practical explorations have shown that promoting organized, networked development of neighboring cities, realizing the integration and optimization of regional innovation resources and the nearby matching of supply and demand for industrial innovation, is conducive to filling the shortcomings of the industrial chain and innovation chain, and also helps to build a regional innovation system and industrial system with comparative advantages. At present, many cities in China’s Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, and the middle reaches of the Yangtze River city clusters have taken distinctive innovation paths in coordinated development, relying on the region’s strong scientific and technological innovation capabilities and solid industrial foundation to promote the integrated development of the innovation chain and industrial chain, creating several industrial clusters and innovation highlands with global influence.

其二，推动城市协同再加速，让创新活力更强劲。推动城市高质量发展，必须把创新作为第一动力，向科技创新要动能。中央城市工作会议提出，着眼于提高城市对人口和经济社会发展的综合承载能力，发展组团式、网络化的现代化城市群和都市圈。这突出强调城市发展要善于“跳出本地看本地”，在城市群、都市圈的协同联动中找准城市创新发展路径。不少理论研究和实践探索都表明，推动邻近城市组团式、网络化发展，实现区域创新资源整合优化、产业创新供需就近对接，有利于补齐产业链创新链短板，也有助于构建具有比较优势的区域创新体系和产业体系。目前，我国京津冀、长三角、珠三角和长江中游城市群的许多城市，在协同发展中走出了特色鲜明的创新之路，依托区域内雄厚的科技创新能力和坚实的产业基础，推动创新链和产业链融合发展，打造出若干个具有全球影响力的产业集群和创新高地。

In practice, it is necessary to guide cities to build core competitiveness and achieve differentiated development, and more importantly, to strengthen the division and cooperation among different cities within regional industrial innovation synergy. Focus on key fields and key regions, strengthen the layout of major scientific and technological innovation platform bases, promote the efficient aggregation of innovation factors in large, medium, and small cities within the region and the linked development of industrial clusters, and achieve a systematic leap in the level of regional development; guide organized development within city clusters, build cross-regional industrial innovation collaboration chains, promote joint tackling of key technologies and the co-construction and sharing of innovation scenarios and pilot test platforms, build industrial cooperation parks and innovation enclaves, and explore benefit-sharing mechanisms; accelerate the construction of modern metropolitan areas with deep integration of the innovation chain and industrial chain, based on the functional positioning, resource endowments, and industrial foundations of each city within the metropolitan area, clarify differentiated development directions, and build an industrial organization system with echelon distribution and efficient synergy. [5]5 “Innovation enclave” (创新飞地) refers to a cross-regional collaborative model in which one area establishes innovation facilities (e.g., R&D centers, industrial parks) in another area to share resources and development opportunities.

在实践中，既要引导城市打造核心竞争力，实现错位发展，更要注重加强不同城市在区域产业创新协同中的分工与合作。聚焦重点领域和重点区域，加强重大科技创新平台基地建设布局，推动区域内大中小城市创新要素高效聚合与产业集群联动发展，实现区域发展能级系统性跃升；引导城市群内部组团式发展，构建跨区域产业创新协作链条，推动关键技术联合攻关和创新场景、中试平台共建共享，建设产业合作园区、创新飞地，探索利益共享机制；加快建设创新链产业链深度融合的现代化都市圈，立足都市圈内各城市的功能定位、资源禀赋和产业基础，明确差异化发展方向，构建梯次分布、高效协同的产业组织体系。

Third, focus on improving urban quality to further optimize the innovation ecology. The Central Conference on Urban Work made clear arrangements for “carefully cultivating an innovation ecology,” which means that the main momentum for future urban economic growth will be the new quality productive forces bred by the urban innovation ecology, and competition among cities will become comprehensive competition in innovation ecology. The key is to achieve value co-creation, and the method focuses on the connection of innovation entities. Many successful examples of building urban innovation ecology have emerged at home and abroad, the key being an emphasis on the connection of innovation entities rather than just resource agglomeration. Among them, Shanghai takes the construction of the “MoSu Space” large-model innovation ecology community and other measures as a lever, promotes cooperation and mutual empowerment among resident enterprises, and creates an industrial ecology agglomeration area where “upstairs and downstairs are upstream and downstream,” stimulating urban innovation and creativity—this is a good example. [6]6 “MoSu Space” (模速空间, a pun on “model speed” or “mode speed”) is a large-model innovation ecology community in Shanghai that facilitates cooperation among AI enterprises. [7]7 “Upstairs and downstairs are upstream and downstream” (上下楼就是上下游) is a phrase describing a vertical industrial ecosystem in which enterprises in the same building form a supply chain.

其三，着眼城市品质再提升，让创新生态更优化。中央城市工作会议对“精心培育创新生态”进行明确部署，这意味着未来城市经济增长的主要动能是城市创新生态所孕育的新质生产力，城市之间的竞争将成为全方位的创新生态竞争。其关键是实现价值共创，方式重在创新主体的联结。国内外已涌现出不少构建城市创新生态的成功范例，其关键在于重视创新主体的联结而不仅仅是资源集聚。其中，上海以“模速空间”大模型创新生态社区等建设为抓手，促进入驻企业加强合作、互相赋能，打造“上下楼就是上下游”的产业生态集聚区，激发城市创新创造活力，就是很好的例证。

To create a highly connected urban innovation ecology, we must grasp three focal points. From the perspective of innovation entities: support the establishment of collaborative innovation networks among enterprises, universities and research institutes, intermediary service organizations, government departments, and financial institutions; build diversified mechanisms to promote multi-node connection of the network; effectively promote the efficient flow of innovation factors; drive value creation and appreciation; and achieve the co-creation of urban economic value and social value. From the perspective of innovation space: carry out high-quality urban renewal to provide new space for enhancing the connectivity of innovation entities; pay more attention to the differences in urban resource endowments, industrial foundations, and strategic positioning; focus on the multi-level innovation needs of urban users; finely promote the restructuring of urban innovation space carriers; and create an inclusive and open institutional environment. At the same time, through renovation and upgrading, open up more innovation application scenarios, use the density and proximity of innovation space to stimulate innovation vitality, and let innovation space integrate into urban life. From the perspective of innovation environment: persist in cultivating urban innovation culture, create a good environment that encourages exploration and tolerates failure; strive to promote the spirit of scientists and the spirit of craftsmanship, carry forward the entrepreneurial spirit; shape an urban temperament that respects labor, knowledge, talent, and creativity; and make modern people’s cities better become magnetic fields and vitality fields for innovation and creation.

打造高联结性的城市创新生态，要把握好三个着力点。从创新主体看，要以多元化机制支撑创新网络构建。支持企业、高校与科研院所、中介服务组织、政府部门和金融机构等建立协同创新网络，打造多元化机制促进网络多节点联结，有效促进创新要素高效流动，推动价值创造与增值，实现城市经济价值、社会价值的共创。从创新空间看，要高质量开展城市更新，为增强创新主体的联结性提供新空间。更加注重城市资源禀赋、产业基础和战略定位的差异性，聚焦城市用户多层次的创新需求，精细化推动城市创新空间载体重构，营造包容开放的制度环境。同时，通过改造升级，开拓更多创新应用场景，利用创新空间密度和邻近性激发创新活力，让创新空间融入城市生活。从创新环境看，要坚持培育城市创新文化，营造鼓励探索、宽容失败的良好环境，着力弘扬科学家精神和工匠精神，发扬企业家精神，塑造尊重劳动、知识、人才、创造的城市气质，使现代化人民城市更好成为创新创造的磁力场、活力场。

(The authors are respectively Vice President and Researcher of the Chinese Academy of Science and Technology for Development.)

（作者分别系中国科学技术发展战略研究院副院长、研究员）

Online editor: Huihui

网络编辑：慧慧