Cheng Shuang, Zhang Yongqiang: 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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

2. Practical Requirements for Investing in People

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.

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.

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.

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.

(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.)