Persist in Investing in People to Promote the Development of New Quality Productive Forces

General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out that new quality productive forces "take the leap in workers, means of labor, objects of labor and their optimized combination as the basic connotation, and take the substantial increase in total factor productivity as the core symbol." [1]1 Xi Jinping, speech at the 11th collective study session of the Political Bureau of the 20th CPC Central Committee, January 31, 2024. The "15th Five-Year Plan" outline [2]2 The "15th Five-Year Plan" refers to the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People's Republic of China, covering the period 2026–2030. lists "promoting well-rounded human development and common prosperity for all the people to make solid progress" as part of the guiding ideology for economic and social development during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, lists "enriching the advantage of human resources" as a major advantage of China's economic and social development, and lists "persisting in closely combining improving people's wellbeing and promoting consumption, investing in things and investing in people" as an important deployment. A profound understanding and comprehensive grasp of the organic unity and practical requirements of "investing in people" and new quality productive forces is of great significance for achieving high-quality development and comprehensively building a modern socialist country.

习近平总书记指出，新质生产力“以劳动者、劳动资料、劳动对象及其优化组合的跃升为基本内涵，以全要素生产率大幅提升为核心标志”。“十五五”规划纲要把“推动人的全面发展、全体人民共同富裕迈出坚实步伐”列入“十五五”时期经济社会发展的指导思想，把“丰富人才资源优势”列为我国经济社会发展的一大优势，把“坚持惠民生和促消费、投资于物和投资于人紧密结合”作为重要部署。深刻理解和全面把握“投资于人”与新质生产力的有机统一关系和实践要求，对实现高质量发展、全面建设社会主义现代化国家具有重要意义。

1. The Organic Unity of Investing in People and New Quality Productive Forces

1.投资于人与新质生产力的有机统一

Investing in people is an important strategy for promoting the adaptation of relations of production to the requirements of the development of productive forces. General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out, "To study Marx, we must study and practice Marx's thought on productive forces and relations of production, be brave in comprehensively deepening reform, consciously stimulate the vitality of social productive forces by adjusting relations of production, and consciously improve the superstructure to adapt to the requirements of the economic base, so that socialism with Chinese characteristics can develop more in line with the laws." [3]3 Xi Jinping, speech at the commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Karl Marx, May 4, 2018. To develop new quality productive forces, we must further comprehensively deepen reform and form new relations of production that are compatible with them. Investing in people, by systematically enhancing the principal status and comprehensive quality of workers, lays a micro-foundation for building new relations of production. On the one hand, investing in people is a key path for the government to better play its role in regulation and guidance and to establish and improve institutional mechanisms conducive to the development of new quality productive forces. Making strategic investments in human capital, comprehensively improving workers' scientific literacy, professional skills, and innovation vitality, essentially strengthens their initiative in the production process, promotes the transformation of the labor process toward a model based on knowledge collaboration and creative participation, promotes a more reasonable participation of knowledge, technology and other factors in value distribution, and provides internal impetus and social foundation for the transformation of relations of production. On the other hand, investing in people can transform the institutional advantages of new relations of production into development advantages for new quality productive forces. The potential of new relations of production to release new quality productive forces ultimately requires the joint realization of "high-precision-advanced-shortage" scientific and technological innovation talents and applied talents who can proficiently master new quality means of production. By strengthening the principal position of workers in production, establishing institutional mechanisms that stimulate the vitality of various entities, releasing individual potential, and promoting comprehensive social progress.

投资于人是推动生产关系与生产力发展要求相适应的重要战略。习近平总书记指出，“学习马克思，就要学习和实践马克思主义关于生产力和生产关系的思想，勇于全面深化改革，自觉通过调整生产关系激发社会生产力发展活力，自觉通过完善上层建筑适应经济基础发展要求，让中国特色社会主义更加符合规律地向前发展”。发展新质生产力,必须进一步全面深化改革,形成与之相适应的新型生产关系。投资于人通过系统性提升劳动者的主体地位与综合素养，为构建新型生产关系奠定微观基础。一方面，投资于人是政府更好发挥调控引导作用、建立健全有利于新质生产力发展的体制机制的关键路径。对人力资本进行战略性投资，全面提升劳动者的科学素养、专业技能与创新活力，实质上是强化其在生产过程中的能动性，推动劳动过程向基于知识协作与创造性参与的模式转型，促进知识、技术等要素更合理地参与价值分配，为生产关系变革提供内在动力和社会基础。另一方面，投资于人可将新型生产关系的制度优势转化为新质生产力的发展优势。新型生产关系释放新质生产力的潜能，最终需要“高精尖缺”科技创新人才和能够熟练掌握新质生产资料的应用型人才来共同实现。通过强化劳动者在生产中的主体地位，构建激发各类主体活力的体制机制，释放个体潜能并促进社会全面进步。

Investing in people is a creative application of the Marxist theory of labor value. Marx stated in *Capital*, "In order to modify the general nature of man, so as to develop skill and dexterity in a given branch of labor, and to render him a more perfect and more productive laborer, a certain amount of education or training is required." [4]4 Karl Marx, *Capital*, Volume I, Chapter 14, Section 5. This assertion indicates that the knowledge and skills of workers are not innate but are the product of social investment. Investing in people, directing resources toward the education and quality improvement of workers, essentially empowers and upgrades the most active, dynamic, and creative factor of production, transforms existing labor into more efficient productive forces, and thereby enhances workers' value-creating ability. Developing new quality productive forces requires both top-notch innovative talents who can lead and create change and a large-scale, high-quality team of professional and skilled talents who support their application and implementation. The cultivation and formation of these two key talent teams fundamentally depend on long-term, systematic, and strategically oriented investment in human capital. Therefore, from a Marxist perspective, investing in people is by no means a mere welfare expenditure but the most essential and most multiplier-effect productive investment. This fundamentally reveals that investing in people is to build the deepest talent foundation for new quality productive forces and activate their most fundamental innovation impetus.

投资于人是对马克思主义劳动价值理论的创造性运用。马克思在《资本论》中提出，“为改变一般人的本性，使它获得一定劳动部门的技能和技巧，成为发达的和专门的劳动力，就要有一定的教育或训练”。这一论断表明劳动者的知识与技能并非与生俱来，而是社会性投资的产物。投资于人，将资源投向劳动者的教育与素质提升，本质上是对生产力中最活跃、最能动、最具创造力的生产要素进行赋能与升级，促进现有劳动力转化为更高效的生产力，进而提升劳动者的价值创造能力。发展新质生产力，既需要能够引领和创造变革的拔尖创新人才，也离不开支撑其落地应用的规模宏大、素质优良的专业技能人才。这两支关键人才队伍的培养造就，从根本上都依赖于长期、系统且富有战略性的人力资本投资。因此，马克思主义视野下的投资于人，绝非单纯的福利支出，而是最本质、最具有乘数效应的生产性投资。这从根本上揭示了，对人的投资就是筑牢新质生产力最深厚的人才保障，激活其最根本的创新动力。

Investing in people is an inevitable requirement for realizing the free and comprehensive development of human beings. In the process of China's socialism advancing from the primary stage to a higher stage, investing in people, by systematically improving the comprehensive quality and creative ability of workers, not only helps realize the people's aspiration for a better life but is also a key path to accelerating the construction of a new development pattern and enhancing the endogenous driving force and reliability of the domestic economic cycle. On the one hand, the free and comprehensive development of human beings is the endogenous driving force for promoting the upgrading of consumption structure and forming more sustainable domestic demand. When workers achieve continuous improvement in human capital and obtain more stable income through investment in people, it will directly promote the upgrading of their consumption structure from subsistence to development. The expansion and quality improvement of consumption driven by investing in people will be transformed into a strong market pull and innovation pressure on new quality productive forces, providing key application scenarios for new technologies and new industries, expanding commercialization space, effectively reducing innovation risks, accelerating iterative upgrading, and ultimately promoting the formation of a higher-level dynamic equilibrium of supply and demand of "human capital improvement—effective demand upgrading—high-quality supply iteration." On the other hand, the free and comprehensive development of human beings is the fundamental driving force for driving profound changes in relations of production and breaking down institutional barriers to the development of new quality productive forces. The systematic demands for fair distribution, factor mobility, and innovation vitality at a higher level that accompany the free and comprehensive development of human beings will directly drive the optimization and adjustment of key areas such as income distribution and property rights systems, promoting the formation of relations of production conducive to the optimal allocation of new production factors. Therefore, while improving people themselves, investing in people essentially cultivates the most valuable market soil and development momentum for new quality productive forces, realizing the dialectical unity of individual development and social progress at a higher level.

投资于人是实现人的自由全面发展的必然要求。在我国社会主义从初级阶段向更高阶段迈进的过程中，投资于人通过系统提升劳动者的综合素质与创造能力，不仅助力实现人民对美好生活的向往，更是加快构建新发展格局、增强国内大循环内生动力和可靠性的关键路径。一方面，人的自由全面发展是推动消费结构升级、形成更可持续内需的内生动力。当劳动者通过投资于人实现人力资本的持续提升并获得更稳定收入时，将直接推动其消费结构从生存型向发展型升级。投资于人所催生的消费扩容提质，将转化为对新质生产力的强大市场牵引与创新倒逼，为新技术、新产业提供关键应用场景、拓展商业化空间，有效降低创新风险、加速迭代升级，最终推动形成“人力资本提升—有效需求升级—优质供给迭代”的供需更高水平动态均衡。另一方面，人的自由全面发展是驱动生产关系深刻变革、破除新质生产力发展的制度壁垒的根本动力。人的自由全面发展所伴随的对公平分配、要素流动与创新活力等更高层次的系统性诉求，将直接驱动收入分配、产权制度等关键领域的优化调整，推动形成有利于新型生产要素优化配置的生产关系。因此，投资于人在提升人本身的同时，实质上也在为新质生产力培育最为宝贵的市场土壤和发展动能，实现个人发展与社会进步在更高层次上的辩证统一。

Investing in people is a key measure for cultivating a new type of workforce that meets the requirements of the times. General Secretary Xi Jinping has emphasized, "The quality of workers is crucial to the development of a country and a nation. In today's world, competition in comprehensive national strength is ultimately competition for talent and competition for the quality of workers." [5]5 Xi Jinping, speech at the National Education Conference, September 10, 2018. We should increase investment in human capital, improve the quality of workers, accelerate the building of a large-scale, knowledge-based, skilled, and innovative industrial workforce, cultivate and bring forth more master craftsmen of the nation and highly skilled talents, inject a lasting source of momentum into the development of new quality productive forces, and effectively transform "institutional advantages" into "productivity advantages" to promote high-quality development. General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out, "The transformation and upgrading of traditional industries can also develop new quality productive forces." [6]6 Xi Jinping, speech during an inspection tour in Heilongjiang, September 2023. In the process of accelerating the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries and developing new quality productive forces, it is necessary to properly handle the mismatch between the existing skills of some workers and the upgraded industrial requirements, and effectively prevent the risk of large-scale unemployment. By systematically strengthening vocational education and skills training, reshaping and improving workers' knowledge structure and practical abilities, we can not only enable them to smoothly transition to new jobs but also continuously accumulate human capital and transform the advantage of population scale into an advantage of talent quality, thus building a solid "talent base" for the development of new quality productive forces.

投资于人是培育适应时代要求的新型劳动者队伍的关键举措。习近平总书记强调，“劳动者素质对一个国家、一个民族发展至关重要。当今世界，综合国力的竞争归根到底是人才的竞争、劳动者素质的竞争”。应加大对人力资本的投入，提高劳动者素质，加快建设一支知识型、技能型、创新型产业工人大军，培养造就更多大国工匠和高技能人才，为新质生产力的发展注入持久的动力源泉，切实将“制度优势”转化为“生产力优势”，推动高质量发展。习近平总书记指出，“传统产业改造升级，也能发展新质生产力”。在加快推动传统产业改造升级、发展新质生产力的过程中，需妥善处理部分劳动者既有技能与升级后的产业要求不匹配的问题，切实防范规模性失业风险。通过系统性加强职业教育和技能培训，重塑和提升劳动者的知识结构与实操能力，不仅能使其顺利过渡到新的就业岗位，更是持续积累人力资本、将人口规模优势转化为人才质量优势的关键路径，为新质生产力发展筑牢“人才底盘”。

2. Practical Requirements for Investing in People

2.投资于人的实践要求

Improve the assessment and incentive mechanisms for local governments, and establish a clear orientation toward investing in people. Establish a comprehensive assessment and evaluation system covering high-quality economic and social development, promoting a profound transformation from "scale-speed" assessment to "quality-efficiency" assessment. Specifically, first, explore incorporating "people-oriented" indicators such as "proportion of human capital investment," "satisfaction rate of talent demand in key industries," and "proportion of newly added skilled talents" into the evaluation system, using assessment to force the optimization of fiscal expenditure structure and promote the precise flow of resources. Second, establish and improve a dynamic monitoring and scientific evaluation mechanism, conduct quarterly monitoring and annual evaluation of key human capital indicators, promptly identify and correct problems, and ensure that policies do not deviate from the expected track. Third, strengthen the rigid application of assessment results, linking assessment results with the selection and appointment of local main leaders, project approval, and fiscal transfer payments, and establish a people-oriented outlook on political performance. By improving the "baton" of the assessment and incentive mechanism, the national strategy of investing in people is internalized into the government's normalized and institutionalized actions, guiding the allocation of resources to focus on core tasks such as developing new quality productive forces.

完善对地方政府的考核和激励机制，树立投资于人的鲜明导向。建立涵盖经济社会高质量发展的综合性考核评价体系，推动从“规模速度型”考核向“质量效益型”考核深刻转变。具体来讲，一是探索将“人力资本投资占比”“重点产业人才需求满足率”“新增技能人才占比”等“人本”指标纳入评价体系，以考核倒逼财政支出结构优化，促进资源精准流向。二是建立健全动态监测与科学评估机制，对关键人力资本指标开展季度监测与年度评估，及时发现并纠正问题，确保政策不偏离预期轨道。三是强化考核结果的刚性运用，将考核结果与地方主要领导的选拔任用、项目审批及财政转移支付等挂钩，树立以“人”为本的政绩观。通过对考核激励机制“指挥棒”的完善，将投资于人这一国家战略内化为政府的常态化、制度化行动，引导资源配置聚焦于发展新质生产力等核心任务。

Optimize investment directions to enhance the strategic effectiveness of investing in people. The scientific planning of investment directions directly determines the quality and efficiency of human capital accumulation. Take optimizing investment directions as a key lever to promote a profound transformation of resource allocation toward a modern paradigm that pays more attention to structure, foresight, and synergy. Specifically, first, adhere to the coordination of "highlighting key points" and "consolidating the foundation." Concentrate superior resources, around cutting-edge key fields such as artificial intelligence and biomanufacturing, strengthen support for top innovative talents and teams through mechanisms such as "open competition for the best candidates" [7]7 "Open competition for the best candidates" (揭榜挂帅) is a mechanism in China where a government or enterprise publicly announces a technical challenge or research topic, and any qualified individual or team can apply to take it on, with rewards for successful completion.; rely on major initiatives such as the national vocational education reform to systematically improve the overall quality of the workforce on a large scale, building a solid talent foundation for industrial upgrading. Second, adhere to the coordination of "serving the present" and "laying out for the future." Quickly respond to the talent gap in key areas, promptly adjust and optimize the allocation of disciplines and specialties in higher education institutions and vocational skills training resources; at the same time, uphold a long-term vision, face future trends in technological and industrial change, make forward-looking investments in basic frontier and cross-disciplinary fields, and cultivate strategic forces capable of leading the next generation of technological development. Third, adhere to the coordination of "hardware guarantee" and "ecological construction." Promote the coordinated development of investing in things and investing in people; while continuing to ensure investment in "hardware" such as scientific research facilities and large-scale instrument platforms, pay attention to the optimization of the ecological environment such as talent support and service supply. Improve the financial support system for early-stage, high-risk talent innovation projects, and systematically solve the worries of talents in key areas of people's livelihood such as housing, education, and medical care.

优化投资方向，提升投资于人的战略效能。投资方向的科学规划，直接决定了人力资本积累的质效。将优化投资方向作为关键抓手，推动资源配置向更加注重结构性、前瞻性与协同性的现代范式深刻转型。具体而言，一是坚持“突出重点”与“夯实基础”相统筹。集中优势资源，围绕人工智能、生物制造等前沿关键领域，以“揭榜挂帅”等机制强化对顶尖创新人才与团队的支持；依托国家职业教育改革等重大举措，大规模、系统性提升劳动者队伍的整体素养，筑牢产业升级的人才基础。二是坚持“服务当下”与“布局未来”相统筹。既要快速响应重点领域人才缺口问题，及时调整优化高等学校学科专业和职业技能培训资源的配置；更要秉持长远眼光，面向未来科技产业变革趋势，在基础前沿和交叉融合领域进行超前投入，培育能够引领下一代科技发展的战略力量。三是坚持“硬件保障”与“生态营造”相统筹。推动投资于物和投资于人协同发展，在持续保障科研设施、大型仪器平台等“硬件”投入的同时，重视人才支持、服务供给等生态环境优化。完善对早期、高风险人才创新项目的金融支持体系，系统化解决人才在安居、教育、医疗等关键民生领域的后顾之忧等。

Promote the integrated development of education, science and technology, and talent, forming a multiplier effect of investing in people to promote high-quality development. Accurately grasp the inherent consistency and mutual support among education, science and technology, and talent; build an integrated system oriented by national strategic needs, centered on the realization of talent value, and based on the deep integration of industry and education, to build a solid foundation of education, science and technology, and talent for the development of new quality productive forces. Specifically, first, build a collaborative pattern that serves the overall situation and is open and shared. Focus on major national strategies and local economic and social development needs, break down institutional barriers between schools and enterprises, and between schools and localities, promote the joint construction of high-level research platforms and innovation consortia, and facilitate the cross-regional flow and optimal allocation of core innovation elements such as talent, knowledge, and resources. Second, establish a talent evaluation and value realization system oriented toward actual contributions. In links such as mutual appointment of talents between schools and enterprises, focus the evaluation criteria on the substantive contributions of talents in promoting interdisciplinary integration and overcoming key industrial technical problems, fully grant talents the right to participate in decision-making and share benefits in discipline planning, technology research and development, and achievement transformation, and effectively transform talent advantages into educational advantages and innovation momentum. Third, promote the deep integration and mutual promotion of the talent chain, education chain, and innovation chain. Take industry-education integration as the starting point, rely on advantageous disciplines to connect with the urgent needs of industrial development, and through hiring "industry professors," jointly building industry colleges, etc., deeply integrate real industrial technology projects and R&D practices into the talent cultivation system, achieving dynamic adaptation between talent supply and industrial upgrading.

一体推进教育科技人才发展，形成投资于人推动高质量发展的倍增效应。准确把握教育、科技、人才的内在一致性和相互支撑性，构建以国家战略需求为导向、以人才价值实现为核心、以产教深度融合为路径的一体化体系，筑牢新质生产力发展的教育科技人才支撑。具体而言，一是构建服务大局、开放共享的协同格局。聚焦国家重大战略与地方经济社会发展需求，破除校企、校地间的体制壁垒，推动共建高水平科研平台与创新联合体，促进人才、知识与资源等核心创新要素的跨域流动与优化配置。二是建立以实际贡献为导向的人才评价与价值实现体系。在校企人才互聘等环节，将评价标准聚焦于人才在推动学科交叉融合、攻克产业关键技术问题等方面的实质性贡献，充分赋予人才在学科规划、技术研发与成果转化中的决策参与权与收益分享权，将人才优势切实转化为育人优势和创新动能。三是推动人才链、教育链、创新链的深度融合与相互促进。以产教融合为抓手，依托优势学科对接产业发展急需，通过聘请“产业教授”、共建产业学院等方式，将产业真实技术项目与研发实践深度融入人才培养体系，实现人才供给与产业升级的动态适配。

Establish and improve institutional mechanisms to stimulate innovation vitality, and build a lasting foundation for investing in people. The ultimate effectiveness of investing in people depends not only on the direction and conversion efficiency of resource input but also on whether a systematic and lasting institutional environment that stimulates innovation vitality can be built to fully release people's creativity. Specifically, first, improve the property rights and distribution system oriented toward knowledge value. Accelerate the reform of ownership or long-term use rights of job-related scientific and technological achievements, grant research teams greater rights to dispose of and benefit from achievements, and explore and promote various distribution forms such as technology investment, post dividends, and project revenue sharing. Second, implement a guarantee mechanism that combines "inclusive and prudent" supervision with "tolerance for mistakes and correction of errors." Facing talent innovation activities in the development of new quality productive forces, optimize supervision while adhering to the bottom line, allow pilot projects within a controllable range; establish and improve a fault-tolerant mechanism that supports reform and tolerates failure, clearly distinguish between mistakes due to lack of experience and pilot projects and violations of discipline and law, and reduce the cost of innovation trial and error. Third, create a social and cultural atmosphere that advocates science and pursues innovation. Through policy guidance and public opinion propaganda, vigorously promote the spirit of scientists, the spirit of craftsmanship, and the spirit of entrepreneurship; strengthen the awareness of intellectual property protection and the rule of law in the whole society, and severely crack down on infringement; continuously improve the scientific literacy of the whole people, and promote the formation of public value orientation that encourages bold exploration, seeking truth from facts, and pursuing excellence.

建立健全激发创新活力的体制机制，筑牢投资于人的持久根基。投资于人的最终效能，不仅取决于资源的投入方向与转化效率，更取决于能否构建一个系统性、持久性激发创新活力的制度环境，将人的创造力充分释放出来。具体而言，一是完善知识价值导向的产权与分配制度。加快推进职务科技成果所有权或长期使用权改革，赋予科研团队更大的成果处置权和收益权，探索推广技术入股、岗位分红、项目收益分红等多种分配形式。二是实施“包容审慎”的监管与“容错纠错”并行的保障机制。面对新质生产力发展中的人才创新活动，在严守底线的前提下优化监管，允许在可控范围内先行先试；建立健全支持改革、宽容失败的机制容错安排，明确区分因缺乏经验、先行先试出现的失误与违纪违法的界限，降低创新试错成本。三是营造崇尚科学、追求创新的社会文化氛围。通过政策引导与舆论宣传，大力弘扬科学家精神、工匠精神和企业家精神；强化全社会的知识产权保护意识与法治观念，严厉打击侵权行为；持续提升全民科学素养，推动形成鼓励大胆探索、求真务实、追求卓越的公共价值导向。

(The authors: Cheng Shuang and Zhang Yongqiang are respectively a researcher at the Zhejiang Provincial Research Center for Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics, and an associate professor at the School of Public Finance and Taxation, Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics.)

（作者：程爽、张永强，分别系浙江省习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想研究中心研究员、浙江财经大学党委副书记，浙江财经大学财政税务学院副教授）