The Role and Key Points of Accelerating the Cultivation and Expansion of New Drivers

The Central Economic Work Conference listed "persisting in innovation-driven development and accelerating the cultivation and expansion of new drivers" as one of the key tasks for economic work in 2026. The essence of cultivating and expanding new drivers lies in driving economic growth through innovation. This is both an immediate necessity for achieving short-term growth targets and closely related to shaping new advantages in long-term international competition. Only by adhering to the rhythm of "accelerating," adapting measures to local conditions, and promoting coordinated efforts in technological breakthroughs, industrial upgrading, and scenario expansion can we better transform innovation advantages into developmental victories, making new drivers a powerful engine for the high-quality and sustainable development of China's economy.

中央经济工作会议将“坚持创新驱动，加紧培育壮大新动能”列为2026年经济工作要抓好的重点任务之一。培育壮大新动能的实质在于以创新驱动经济增长，这既是实现短期增长目标的当下所需，也与塑造长期国际竞争新优势息息相关。唯有以“加紧”的节奏，坚持因地制宜，推动科技突破、产业跃升、场景拓展协同发力，才能更好将创新优势切实转化为发展胜势，让新动能成为我国经济高质量、可持续发展的强劲引擎。

Viewing the Cultivation of New Drivers from the Word "Accelerating"

从“加紧”二字看培育新动能

Reviewing the relevant expressions of the Central Economic Work Conference in recent years, the policy trajectory of "cultivating and expanding new drivers" has become increasingly clear. In 2022, it proposed "relying on innovation to cultivate and expand new drivers for development"; in 2023, it emphasized "cultivating and developing new drivers"; in 2024, it required "balancing the relationship between cultivating new drivers and renewing old drivers"; and in 2025, it particularly highlighted the word "accelerating"—this expression carries a strong signal and profound implications, fully demonstrating the importance of cultivating and expanding new drivers.

梳理近年中央经济工作会议的相关表述可见，“培育壮大新动能”的政策脉络日益清晰。2022年，提出“依靠创新培育壮大发展新动能”；2023年，强调“培育发展新动能”；2024年，要求“统筹好培育新动能和更新旧动能的关系”；2025年则特别突出“加紧”二字——这一表述信号强烈、意蕴深远，充分说明了培育壮大新动能的重要性。

The stimulation of drivers has always played a key and fundamental driving role in economic development. Cultivating and expanding new drivers means forming new economic growth points through technological innovation, industrial innovation, and scenario innovation, promoting more efficient and sustainable economic growth. This is an important deployment that comprehensively considers the complex domestic and international situation and focuses on long-term development.

动能激发在经济发展中始终发挥着关键性、基础性的驱动作用。培育壮大新动能意味着通过科技创新、产业创新、场景创新形成新的经济增长点，推动经济实现更高效、更可持续的增长。这是综合考虑国内外复杂形势、着眼长远发展的重要部署。

From the perspective of domestic development, accelerating the cultivation and expansion of new drivers is an urgent need to better achieve an effective improvement in economic quality and a reasonable increase in quantity. Currently, the growth rates of both investment and consumption in China have slowed to varying degrees, and the driving effect of old drivers on economic growth has significantly weakened. The cultivation of new drivers has made positive progress. In 2024, the added value of China's "three new" economy [1]1 The "three new" economy refers to new industries, new business forms, and new models, a statistical category used by China's National Bureau of Statistics to measure the output of innovation-driven economic activities. accounted for over 18% of GDP, but it still needs to be further expanded to truly shoulder the "main beam" of supporting economic development. The transition between old and new drivers is still at a critical stage. On the one hand, it is necessary to continue implementing a more proactive fiscal policy and a moderately loose monetary policy, increasing the intensity of counter-cyclical and cross-cyclical adjustments. On the other hand, efforts must be made to promote the organic combination of short-term stable growth and medium- to long-term driver transformation, accelerating the cultivation and expansion of new industries, new business forms, and new models, and effectively promoting both the quantity and quality of economic development.

从国内发展看，加紧培育壮大新动能是更好实现经济质的有效提升和量的合理增长的迫切需要。当前我国投资和消费增速均出现不同程度的放缓，旧动能对经济增长的拉动作用明显减弱。新动能培育已取得积极进展，2024年我国“三新”经济增加值占GDP比重已超过18%，但仍需进一步壮大才能真正挑起支撑经济发展的“大梁”。新旧动能转换仍处于关键阶段，一方面需继续实施更加积极的财政政策和适度宽松的货币政策，加大逆周期和跨周期调节力度；另一方面需着力推动短期稳增长与中长期动能转换有机结合，加速培育壮大新产业、新业态、新模式，切实推动经济发展量质齐升。

Accelerating the cultivation and expansion of new drivers is also conducive to achieving a higher level of supply-demand balance. The balance between supply and demand is an important condition for the smooth circulation of the national economy. If supply exceeds demand, phenomena such as excessive competition, inefficient allocation of scarce resources, and even waste may occur. If supply falls short of demand, it cannot meet the material and cultural needs of the people, which is detrimental to improving residents' welfare. Currently, there is still a certain imbalance between supply and demand in China. This is related not only to insufficient domestic demand, especially consumer demand, but also to problems on the supply side, such as innovation lagging behind and quality mismatches, making it difficult to effectively meet the people's new demands for a better life. Drawing from international experience, when per capita GDP exceeds $10,000, residents' consumption shifts from subsistence-oriented to development-oriented, from mainly commodity consumption to equal emphasis on commodity and service consumption, and exhibits characteristics of high quality, diversity, and personalization. For example, relevant surveys show that there is a significant demand for low-altitude economy consumption, but due to lagging infrastructure such as takeoff and landing points, as well as communication, navigation, and monitoring systems, the supply potential has not yet been fully released. Another example is that the supply of services such as elderly care, childcare, and medical care still struggles to fully meet the new demands brought about by demographic changes. As of the end of 2024, there remains a considerable gap between the number of nursing-type beds in registered elderly care institutions in China and the number of disabled and semi-disabled elderly individuals. The number of childcare slots for children under three years old per thousand people is only 4.08. To solve these problems, it is urgent to accelerate the cultivation and expansion of new drivers, use higher-quality supply to meet the escalating potential consumer demand, promote a better match between supply and demand, and enhance the endogenous driving force of the domestic economic cycle.

加紧培育壮大新动能，也有利于实现更高水平供求平衡。供给和需求的平衡是国民经济循环畅通的重要条件。如果供给大于需求，会出现过度竞争、稀缺资源无效配置甚至浪费等行为。如果供给小于需求，则无法满足居民的物质和文化需要，不利于提升居民福祉。当前我国供给和需求仍存在一定的不平衡，这既与国内需求特别是消费需求不足有关，也与供给端还存在着创新跟不上、品质不匹配等问题，难以有效满足人民对美好生活新需求有关。从国际经验看，当人均GDP超过1万美元后，居民消费将从生存型转向发展型，从以商品消费为主转向商品和服务消费并重，并呈现高品质、多样化、个性化特征。比如，相关调查显示，人们对低空经济消费有很大的需求，但由于起降点等基础设施、通信导航监测体系建设滞后，供给潜力还未充分释放。再如，养老、托育、医疗等服务的供给仍难以充分满足人口结构变化带来的新需求。截至2024年底，我国注册登记的养老机构护理型床位数与失能和半失能老年人数量相比仍有较大缺口，每千人口拥有的3岁以下婴幼儿托位数仅4.08个。破解这些难题，亟须加紧培育壮大新动能，以更优质的供给满足不断升级的潜在消费需求，促进供需更加适配，增强国内大循环内生动力。

From the perspective of the international landscape, accelerating the cultivation and expansion of new drivers is an inevitable choice to cope with the increasingly fierce global technological competition and firmly grasp the historical opportunity of the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation. Currently, competition among major powers is unfolding comprehensively around the new round of technological revolution. Unlike the past, this round of technological revolution is prominently characterized by general-purpose technologies represented by artificial intelligence and open-source innovation systems profoundly reshaping the paradigm of technological innovation, with significantly accelerated iteration and diffusion of technological innovation. At the same time, major countries are strengthening their national strategic layouts and systematically promoting technological innovation. Once a country falls behind the frontier in key areas, it will face a passive situation that is difficult to catch up with comprehensively. This has led to a significantly shortened window of strategic opportunity for the new round of technological revolution compared to the past. In this context, whether a country can rapidly industrialize technological innovation achievements and form sustainable leading advantages as early as possible has become the key to determining success or failure in international technological competition. Faced with a fleeting window of strategic opportunity, it is necessary to accelerate the deep integration of technological innovation, industrial innovation, and scenario innovation, and accelerate the cultivation and expansion of new drivers.

从国际大势看，加紧培育壮大新动能是应对日益激烈的全球科技竞争、牢牢把握新一轮科技革命和产业变革历史机遇的必然选择。当前，大国竞争正围绕新一轮科技革命全面展开。与以往不同，此轮科技革命突出表现为以人工智能为代表的通用目的技术及开源创新体系深刻重塑科技创新范式，科技创新迭代与扩散速度显著加快。同时，主要国家纷纷强化国家战略布局，系统推进科技创新。一国一旦在关键领域落后于前沿国家，将面临难以全面追赶的被动局面。这使得新一轮科技革命的战略机遇窗口期较以往大幅缩短。在此背景下，能否快速实现科技创新成果产业化、尽早形成可持续的领先优势，已成为决定国际科技竞争成败的关键。面对稍纵即逝的战略机遇窗口期，必须加快科技创新、产业创新、场景创新的深度融合，加紧培育壮大新动能。

Understanding the Internal Relationships Among the Three Types of Innovation

理解三方面创新的内在关系

Drivers are the sources that drive the continuous expansion of the economic scale and the continuous improvement of quality in a country or region, mainly including factor input, efficiency improvement, structural optimization, and innovation. New drivers refer to the new sources and new forces driving economic growth, with innovation at their core. Cultivating and expanding new drivers covers the complete chain from scientific discovery, technological breakthroughs, to product development, commercial transformation, and industrial development. From the perspective of concrete practice, it can be roughly divided into three interrelated main links: technological innovation, industrial innovation, and scenario innovation.

动能是驱动一个国家或地区经济规模持续扩大、质量持续提升的源泉，主要包括要素投入、效率提升、结构优化和创新等。新动能即驱动经济增长的新源泉、新动力，其核心在于创新。培育壮大新动能，覆盖从科学发现、技术突破到产品开发、商业转化再到产业发展的完整链条。从具体实践的角度来看，大体可划分为科技创新、产业创新和场景创新三个相互关联的主要环节。

Technological innovation is the driving engine for cultivating and expanding new drivers. Technological innovation includes scientific discoveries and technological inventions. It is the source of scientific and technological achievements and the primary task of cultivating and expanding new drivers. Among them, breakthroughs in key generic technologies are the focus of technological innovation. Only by overcoming key generic technology bottlenecks as soon as possible can conditions be created for the transformation, application, and commercialization of technological innovation achievements. For example, the lag in key technologies such as high-precision gene editing, metabolite detection and precise regulation is constraining the industrialization process of biomanufacturing. Meanwhile, technological shortcomings in areas such as models, chips, operating systems, and high-end precision components also limit the development of frontier directions like embodied intelligence. Therefore, cultivating new drivers must focus on key generic technologies, increase support for technological innovation, shorten innovation cycles, improve innovation efficiency, and accelerate the emergence of high-quality technological innovation achievements.

科技创新是培育壮大新动能的驱动引擎。科技创新包括科学发现和技术发明，是科技成果产生的源头，也是培育壮大新动能的首要任务。其中，关键共性技术突破是科技创新的重点。只有尽快攻克关键共性技术难题，才能为科技创新成果转化应用和商业化创造条件。例如，高精度基因编辑、代谢产物检测与精准调控等关键技术的滞后，正制约着生物制造的产业化进程；而模型、芯片、操作系统、高端精密零部件等领域存在的技术短板，也限制了具身智能等前沿方向的发展。因此，培育新动能必须聚焦关键共性技术，加大科技创新支持力度，缩短创新周期，提高创新效率，推动高质量科技创新成果加速涌现。

Industrial innovation is a key link in cultivating and expanding new drivers. Industrial innovation is the process of achieving large-scale production that matches and integrates with large-scale consumption. Building a complete supporting system, a healthy industrial ecosystem, and an institutional environment conducive to innovation are the key points. Industrial innovation includes both how to achieve efficient and stable large-scale production through technology integration and process optimization, and how to make supply precisely match or even lead market demand through organizational change, business model innovation, and market development. The former ensures the stability and cost controllability of product supply, while the latter ensures that output can fully adapt to public demand and be transformed into actual economic growth. In practice, many emerging industries, although possessing technological advancement in their early stages and capable of initial mass production, find it difficult to develop rapidly due to immature business models, weak industrial chain supporting systems, and imperfect industrial ecosystems. Therefore, to cultivate and expand new drivers, it is necessary to accelerate the improvement of supporting systems, industrial ecosystems, and institutional environments, promote organizational change and business model innovation, and achieve a dynamic balance and positive cycle between "scale of production" and "scale of demand."

产业创新是培育壮大新动能的关键环节。产业创新是实现规模化生产并与大规模消费相匹配、融合促进的过程。构建完善的配套体系、健康的产业生态和有利于创新的制度环境是重点所在。产业创新既包括如何通过技术集成和流程优化实现高效、稳定的规模化生产，也涉及如何通过组织变革、商业模式创新和市场开拓，使供给精准匹配乃至引领市场需求。前者确保产品供给的稳定性和成本可控性，后者则确保产出可充分适应大众需求并转变为实际的经济增长。从实践看，许多新兴产业在初期虽具备技术先进性，也可实现初步量产，却因商业模式不成熟、产业链配套薄弱、产业生态不完善而难以快速发展。因此，培育壮大新动能，需加快完善配套体系、产业生态和制度环境，促进组织变革和商业模式创新，使“生产的规模化”与“需求的规模化”之间实现动态平衡和正向循环。

In the process of transforming scientific and technological innovation into industrial innovation, the importance of scenario innovation must also be recognized. As a concrete carrier connecting technological achievements with market demand, scenario innovation runs through the entire process of product development and commercialization, and to a large extent influences whether scientific and technological innovation achievements can be rapidly and efficiently transformed, applied, and commercialized. Its focus lies in forming real and effective demonstration applications. This requires both accurately discerning demand to achieve efficient matching of supply and demand, and creating feasible, easily verifiable implementation scenarios. Currently, promoting the development of emerging industries and future industries faces a prominent bottleneck of insufficient application scenarios. Taking the low-altitude economy as an example, its applications are currently mostly concentrated in fields such as agricultural plant protection, forestry monitoring, industrial inspection, power line inspection, and drone performances, while applications in scenarios such as tourism, urban air mobility, intercity transportation, emergency rescue, and medical evacuation remain relatively limited, constraining the full release of industrial potential. Therefore, to cultivate and expand new drivers of growth, it is necessary to make great efforts to strengthen scenario innovation, accelerate the sorting and release of scenario demand lists, encourage various entities to open up high-value scenarios, deepen the matching of supply and demand, accelerate the construction of supporting infrastructure for major scenarios, and pave the way for the large-scale application of new technologies and new products.

在科技创新向产业创新转化的过程中还要看到场景创新的重要性。作为连接技术成果与市场需求的现实载体，场景创新贯穿产品开发与商业化全过程，很大程度上影响着科技创新成果能否快速高效转化应用和商业化。其重点在于形成真实、有效的示范应用，既要精准洞察需求，实现供需高效匹配，也要打造可行性强、易于验证的落地场景。当前，推动新兴产业和未来产业发展，正面临应用场景不足的突出瓶颈。以低空经济为例，其应用目前多集中于农业植保、林业监测、工业巡检、电力巡检、无人机表演等领域，而在旅游观光、城市空中交通、城际交通、应急抢险、医疗救援等场景的应用仍相对有限，制约了产业潜力的充分释放。因此，培育壮大新动能，必须着力强化场景创新，加快梳理并发布场景需求清单，推动各类主体开放高价值场景，深化供需对接，加快重大场景配套基础设施建设，为新技术、新产品的规模化应用铺平道路。

Taken together, scientific and technological innovation, industrial innovation, and scenario innovation each play a unique role in the process of stimulating new drivers of growth. They are both distinct from and interdependent on each other, synergistically linked, and together constitute a complete chain of innovation-driven economic growth. It is necessary to comprehensively grasp the internal logic and interaction mechanisms of the three, adhere to systematic planning and integrated advancement, thereby effectively connecting the entire process from technological breakthroughs to industrial implementation, and from product development to market validation, fully releasing the overall effectiveness of the innovation system, and laying a solid foundation for cultivating and expanding new drivers of growth.

综合来看，科技创新、产业创新和场景创新三者在激发新动能过程中分别承担着独特的作用，既相互区别又相互依存、协同关联，共同构成创新驱动经济增长的完整链条。必须统筹把握三者的内在逻辑和互动机制，坚持系统布局、一体推进，从而有效贯通从技术突破到产业落地、从产品开发到市场验证的全过程，充分释放创新体系的整体效能，为培育壮大新动能筑牢基础。

The key is to deeply integrate according to local conditions

关键要因地制宜深度融合

Accelerating the cultivation and expansion of new drivers of growth is a systematic project. It not only requires the coordinated promotion of scientific and technological innovation, industrial innovation, and scenario innovation, but is also inseparable from the cultivation of an innovation ecosystem, the construction of a regional innovation system, and the improvement of the institutional environment for innovation. In the overall process of advancement, two key points must be firmly grasped.

加紧培育壮大新动能是一项系统工程，不仅需要统筹推进科技创新、产业创新和场景创新，也离不开创新生态的培育、区域创新体系的构建以及创新制度环境的完善。在整体推进过程中，要牢牢把握两个关键。

From the perspective of work priorities, it is necessary to closely focus on the focal point of the deep integration of scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation. On the one hand, the evolution of past scientific and technological revolutions and industrial changes generally presented a linear progressive process from scientific and technological innovation to the transformation of scientific and technological achievements to industrial innovation. However, the evolution of the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial change presents different characteristics—industrial innovation may even be ahead of scientific and technological innovation, and has gradually become an important force driving scientific and technological innovation. Scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation are increasingly showing a trend of integration and synchronization. On the other hand, looking at China’s actual development, although significant progress has been made, constrained by factors such as institutional mechanisms, the integration and correlation between scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation remain relatively weak. The phenomenon of “two separate skins” [2]2 “Two separate skins” (两张皮) is a Chinese idiom referring to two things that should be integrated but remain separate and disconnected, often used to criticize the lack of coordination between theory and practice or between different policy areas. still exists to varying degrees, affecting the efficiency of utilization and allocation of innovation factors, delaying the innovation process, and hindering the accelerated cultivation of new drivers of growth. Therefore, in the process of cultivating and expanding new drivers of growth, it is necessary to focus on the key point of deep integration. This requires both making efforts to break down institutional and mechanism obstacles, effectively solving the problem of “disconnection” between the innovation chain and the industrial chain, and systematically optimizing mechanisms for resource allocation, industry-university-research collaboration, and industrial layout, comprehensively opening up the transformation channels from a strong science and technology base to a strong industry and a strong economy.

从工作重点看，需紧扣科技创新和产业创新深度融合这一着力点。一方面，以往科技革命和产业变革演进总体上呈现出从科技创新到科技成果转化再到产业创新的线性递进过程，而新一轮科技革命和产业变革演进则呈现出不同特征——产业创新甚至可能走在了科技创新的前面，并逐渐成为驱动科技创新的重要力量，科技创新和产业创新日益出现融合化、同步化趋势。另一方面，从我国发展实际看，虽已取得显著进展，但受体制机制等因素制约，科技创新和产业创新之间的融合性与关联性仍相对较弱，“两张皮”现象仍不同程度存在，影响了创新要素的利用和配置效率，延缓了创新进程，不利于新动能的加快培育。因此，在培育壮大新动能过程中，必须聚焦深度融合这一关键，既着力破除体制机制障碍，切实解决创新链与产业链“脱节”问题，又系统优化资源配置、产学研协同和产业布局等机制，全面打通从科技强到产业强、经济强的转化渠道。

From the perspective of work methods, it is necessary to adhere to adapting measures to local conditions, and cultivate and expand new drivers of growth based on existing foundations. Accelerating the cultivation and expansion of new drivers of growth is an important task deployed by the central authorities. In the implementation process, the methodology of adapting measures to local conditions must be adhered to. On the one hand, proceeding from reality in everything is the starting point and foothold for us to think about problems, make decisions, and handle affairs, and is an important method for doing all work well. This requires both grasping the universal laws of the development of things and basing oneself on reality, achieving concrete analysis of specific problems. On the other hand, cultivating and expanding new drivers of growth through innovation-driven development is a new topic, and mature experience and fixed models have not yet been formed. This inherently requires that all localities must adapt measures to local conditions and to the times, actively exploring development paths that suit their own realities. After the central authorities clarify the direction and deployment, all localities should, based on their own development levels, basic conditions, and actual situations, implement classified policies and take active actions in innovation priorities and industrial layout, carry out differentiated exploration, and gradually form distinctive, vibrant, and sustainable models for cultivating new drivers of growth in practice.

从工作方法看，需坚持因地制宜，立足现有基础培育壮大新动能。加紧培育壮大新动能是中央部署的重要任务，落实过程中要坚持因地制宜的方法论。一方面，坚持一切从实际出发是我们想问题、作决策、办事情的出发点和落脚点，是做好各项工作的重要方法。这要求既要把握事物发展的普遍规律，又要立足实际，做到具体问题具体分析。另一方面，通过创新驱动培育壮大新动能是一项新课题，尚未形成成熟的经验与固定模式，这内在地要求各地必须因地制宜、因时制宜，积极主动探索符合自身实际的发展路径。在中央明确方向和部署后，各地应结合自身发展水平、基础条件和现实情况，在创新重点与产业布局上分类施策、积极作为，开展差异化探索，在实践中逐步形成有特色、有活力、可持续的新动能培育模式。

(The authors are respectively the Director of the Industrial Economy Research Department and the Director of the Research Office of the Development Research Center of the State Council)

（作者分别系国务院发展研究中心产业经济研究部部长、研究室主任）

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