Balancing Priorities to Accelerate the Development of New Quality Productive Forces

The report of the 20th National Congress of the CPC emphasizes that “high-quality development is the primary task in building a modern socialist country in all respects.” General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out during the 11th collective study session of the Political Bureau of the Party Central Committee that “developing new quality productive forces is an intrinsic requirement and a key focus for promoting high-quality development.” There is a close relationship among building a modern socialist country in all respects, promoting high-quality development, and developing new quality productive forces, reflecting the distinctive feature of integrating strategy with tactics and combining trends with pathways.

党的二十大报告强调，“高质量发展是全面建设社会主义现代化国家的首要任务”。习近平总书记在中共中央政治局第十一次集体学习时指出，“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”。全面建设社会主义现代化国家、推动高质量发展、发展新质生产力三者之间具有紧密的关系，体现出将战略和策略相统筹、将趋向与路径相结合的显著特征。

New quality productive forces represent a new category in the theory of productive forces, and developing them is a new practical task for Chinese society. It is necessary to analyze the formative factors and changing trends of productive forces, align with the basic characteristics and core indicators of new quality productive forces, and highlight the role of new-type relations of production in promoting the development of new quality productive forces. Developing new quality productive forces involves a profound grasp of the theory and practice of productive forces, the history and trends of their development, and the agents and drivers of their advancement. It is a dynamic process closely linked to multiple areas of the national economy. Proceeding from a systemic perspective and an overall situation, developing new quality productive forces should balance priorities, pool forces from multiple directions, and generate strong momentum.

新质生产力是生产力理论的新范畴，发展新质生产力是我国社会实践的新课题，必须分析生产力的形成因素及变化趋势，契合新质生产力的基本特征及核心标志，凸显新型生产关系对新质生产力发展的促进作用。发展新质生产力涉及对生产力理论和实践、生产力发展历史和趋势、生产力推动主体和动力等方面的深刻把握，是一个与国民经济中多个领域紧密关联的动态过程。从系统观念和全局出发，发展新质生产力应统筹兼顾，汇聚多方合力，形成强大动能。

First, in developing new quality productive forces, efforts should focus on improving the efficiency of factor combinations while also attending to adjustments in the dimension of factor supply. Marxist political economy emphasizes the role of laborers, means of labor, and objects of labor, as well as their combination, in productive forces. Currently, China’s working-age population is shrinking in size and declining in proportion, and the factor supply situation is undergoing profound changes. It is necessary to stimulate a demographic dividend by improving the quality of human capital and to include knowledge, data, and the like within the scope of factors. Given that tangible factor supply is often subject to quantitative constraints, developing new quality productive forces requires shifting the emphasis toward the efficiency of factor combinations. Among these, a substantial increase in total factor productivity is the core indicator for forming new quality productive forces, and it is more durable and stable. Therefore, it is essential to promote factor reallocation and innovation in the modes of factor combination, so that different factor combinations embody the characteristics of high technology, high efficiency, and high quality.

其一，发展新质生产力，应着力提高要素组合效率，同时兼顾要素供给维度的调整。马克思主义政治经济学强调劳动者、劳动资料、劳动对象及其组合对生产力的作用。当前我国劳动年龄人口规模缩减、占比下降，要素供给状况正发生深刻转变，需要通过提高人力资本质量来激发人口红利，将知识、数据等纳入要素范围。考虑到有形要素供给往往存在数量约束，发展新质生产力需将侧重点转向要素组合效率。其中，全要素生产率的大幅提升是形成新质生产力的核心标志，更具持久性和稳健性。因此，必须推动要素再配置，推动要素组合方式创新，使不同要素组合体现高科技、高效能、高质量特征。

Second, in developing new quality productive forces, scientific and technological innovation and institutional innovation should be advanced in coordination, with greater emphasis on the driving role of institutional change in scientific and technological innovation. New quality productive forces are spawned by revolutionary breakthroughs in technology, innovative allocation of production factors, and deep industrial transformation and upgrading. Compared with traditional productive forces, new quality productive forces more prominently highlight the role of science and technology in the production process. Developing new quality productive forces must take scientific and technological innovation as the core driving force, increase the level of investment in science and technology, expand the ranks of scientific research personnel, improve the integrated platform for industry, academia, research, and application, and promote the coordinated and integrated development of education, science and technology, and talent. From the perspective of systems theory, scientific and technological innovation occurs within a specific institutional environment, and institutional change is an objective requirement for scientific and technological innovation. Only under conditions where institutions are adjusted and new-type relations of production are formed can scientific and technological innovation and its supporting role for productive forces have a fundamental guarantee. To this end, it is necessary to comprehensively deepen reform and opening up, especially to deepen reform of the economic system, build a high-level socialist market economy system, and stimulate the innovation vitality of various micro-level entities. Through optimization at the institutional level, a more relaxed atmosphere, fuller incentives, and more stable expectations should be provided for innovators.

其二，发展新质生产力，应协同推进科技创新和制度创新，更加突出制度变革对科技创新的驱动作用。新质生产力由技术革命性突破、生产要素创新性配置、产业深度转型升级而催生。相对于传统生产力，新质生产力更加凸显科技对生产过程的作用。发展新质生产力要以科技创新为核心驱动力，提高科技投入水平、壮大科技研发队伍、完善产学研用一体化平台、推动教育科技人才协同融合发展。从系统论的角度看，科技创新是在特定制度环境下发生的，制度变革是科技创新的客观要求，只有在制度调整并形成新型生产关系的条件下，科技创新及其对生产力的支撑作用才具有根本保障。为此，必须全面深化改革开放，特别是要深化经济体制改革，构建高水平社会主义市场经济体制，激发各类微观主体的创新活力。通过制度层面的优化，为创新者提供更宽松的氛围、更充分的激励和更稳定的预期。

Third, in developing new quality productive forces, supply-driven and demand-pull approaches should be coordinated, with particular attention to resolving the main bottlenecks affecting demand expansion. Productive forces are the ability of people to utilize and transform nature, and this ability is typically reflected at the micro level in the level of product or service supply by enterprises. Developing new quality productive forces requires attention to supply-driven approaches, meaning that enterprises form new products, new technologies, new business forms, and new models in the production process, and changes on the supply side shape the scale, level, and structure of consumption on the demand side. At the same time, productive forces cannot exist independently of demand; the supply of products or services by enterprises must be transformed through exchange into consumption to have meaning. Developing new quality productive forces must be oriented toward meeting the needs of people’s comprehensive development, fully leveraging the traction function of demand on the development of productive forces. It is necessary to actively adapt to changes in residents’ consumption structure, promptly incorporate emerging demands such as green and elderly care into the production system, strive to narrow income gaps between urban and rural areas, regions, and industries, continuously advance the integration of urban and rural social security systems, actively promote high-level opening up to the outside world, accurately transmit market signals to the supply side in the process of expanding demand, and effectively play the important role of demand traction.

其三，发展新质生产力，应将供给驱动和需求牵引相协同，特别是要解决影响需求扩大的主要瓶颈。生产力是人们利用和改造自然的能力，这种能力在微观层面通常体现为企业的产品或服务供给水平。发展新质生产力需要关注供给驱动，即企业在生产过程中形成新产品、新技术、新业态、新模式，供给端变化会塑造需求端的消费规模、层次和结构。同时，生产力不能脱离需求而单独存在，企业的产品或服务供给，必须通过交换转化为消费才具有意义。发展新质生产力必须以满足人的全面发展需要为导向，充分发挥需求对生产力发展的牵引功能。要积极适应居民消费结构变化，将绿色、养老等新兴需求及时纳入生产体系，着力缩小城乡、地区和行业收入差距，不断推进城乡社会保障体系一体化，积极推进高水平对外开放，在扩大需求的过程中向供给端准确传递市场信号，有效发挥需求牵引的重要作用。

Fourth, in developing new quality productive forces, both efficiency growth and outcome distribution should be comprehensively considered, and the multiple effects that may arise should be fully studied and addressed. In terms of economic accounting, the development of productive forces is primarily reflected in GDP growth. Developing new quality productive forces means promoting a transformation of the development model through scientific and technological innovation and institutional change, forming new development momentum, advancing the increase of total factor productivity, and promoting the economy to achieve effective qualitative improvement and reasonable quantitative growth. Developing new quality productive forces is inevitably accompanied by efficiency growth, which has a significant promoting effect on the growth of social wealth. At the same time, the process and results of developing new quality productive forces vary across different fields; it generally occurs first in sectors or enterprises that are sensitive to market changes and have outstanding innovation capabilities. These sectors or enterprises often belong to capital-intensive, technology-intensive, and knowledge-intensive industries, which increase demand for highly skilled talent while potentially reducing the number of jobs provided for ordinary workers. Thus, while new quality productive forces improve overall production efficiency, they may also affect the income and employment status of different groups. This non-uniform characteristic of outcome distribution deserves attention. It is necessary to better coordinate development and security, adhere to the general principle of pursuing progress while ensuring stability, advance the development of new quality productive forces and traditional productive forces in a coordinated manner according to the needs of social division of labor, and do a good job in improving the social security system, reasonably regulating income distribution, and stabilizing and expanding employment.

其四，发展新质生产力，应通盘考虑效率增长和结果分配两个方面，充分研判和应对可能产生的多重效应。就经济核算而言，生产力发展集中体现为GDP的增长。发展新质生产力，就是要通过科技创新和制度变革促进发展方式转变，形成新发展动能，推进全要素生产率的提升，推动经济实现质的有效提升和量的合理增长。发展新质生产力必然伴随着效率增长，这对于社会财富增长具有显著促进作用。同时，发展新质生产力在不同领域的进程及结果存在差异，一般会率先发生在对市场变化敏感、创新能力突出的部门或企业，这些部门或企业往往属于资本、技术和知识密集型产业，其对高技术人才的需求增加，对一般劳动者提供的就业岗位可能会减少。可见，新质生产力在提高整体生产效率的同时，有可能会对不同群体的收入和就业状况产生影响，这种结果分配的非均匀特征值得关注。必须更好统筹发展和安全，坚持稳中求进工作总基调，按照社会化分工的需要，统筹推进新质生产力和传统生产力发展，并做好完善社会保障体系、合理调节收入分配、稳定和扩大就业等方面的工作。

Fifth, in developing new quality productive forces, top-level design should be combined with local practice, fully unleashing the innovation and exploration potential of different regions. China is a large developing country, and different regions have different endowment conditions and industrial characteristics. Developing new quality productive forces requires strengthening top-level design and exploring development pathways under the overall national deployment and strategic planning. To better serve the building of a great modern socialist country, medium- and long-term strategic plans for the development of new quality productive forces should be established at the macro level, the spatial layout of productive forces should be optimized, basic research work and the development of key industries should be advanced by leveraging the advantages of the new nationwide system for mobilizing resources and issuing industrial guidance policies, and the development of new quality productive forces should be supported by developing technology finance and green finance. Considering the characteristics of a large population and vast territory, while improving top-level design, necessary space for exploration should be granted to various localities in developing new quality productive forces. By improving performance assessment mechanisms and fiscal management systems, localities should be encouraged to develop new quality productive forces in accordance with local conditions, and to advance innovation activities in different industries or different links of the industrial chain based on their own conditions and comparative advantages, thereby forming a development landscape of differentiated development, complementary advantages, a hundred flowers blooming, and a hundred boats racing forward.

其五，发展新质生产力，应将顶层设计与地方实践相结合，充分释放不同地区的创新和探索潜能。我国是一个发展中大国，不同地区的禀赋条件、产业特征存在差异。发展新质生产力必须加强顶层设计，在国家整体部署和战略规划下探寻发展路径。为更好服务社会主义现代化强国建设，应在宏观层面确立新质生产力发展的中长期战略规划，优化生产力空间布局，通过发挥新型举国体制优势、出台产业引导政策推进基础研究工作和重点产业发展，通过发展科技金融、绿色金融助力新质生产力发展。考虑到人口众多、地域广阔等特征，在完善顶层设计的同时，应赋予各地发展新质生产力必要的探索空间，通过完善绩效考核机制和财政管理制度，鼓励各地因地制宜发展新质生产力，鼓励各地依据自身条件和比较优势，推进不同产业或产业链不同环节的创新活动，从而形成错位发展、优势互补、百花齐放、百舸争流的发展图景。

Sixth, developing new quality productive forces should promote a better combination of an effective market and a competent government, forming a long-term mechanism. Relations of production exert a counteractive effect on productive forces, and new-type relations of production can drive the development of new quality productive forces. Developing new quality productive forces is closely linked to comprehensively deepening economic system reform; the core issue of economic system reform is properly handling the relationship between the government and the market, fully leveraging the decisive role of the market in resource allocation, and better playing the government’s role. This includes defining and protecting property rights, maintaining fair market competition, relying on infrastructure construction and rule improvement to reduce transaction costs, regulating income distribution and improving social security, enhancing fiscal investment in basic research and key industrial fields, and using macroeconomic policies to smooth economic fluctuations. At the same time, developing new quality productive forces is also closely related to the behavior of micro-level entities such as enterprises. To properly address the issue of developing new quality productive forces, the urgent task is to effectively implement the “Two Unswervinglys”[6]6 The “Two Unswervinglys” (两个毫不动摇) refers to the Party’s policy of unswervingly consolidating and developing the public sector of the economy, and unswervingly encouraging, supporting, and guiding the development of the non-public sector., stabilize enterprise development expectations, optimize the business environment, take the growth of private enterprise investment and investment in innovative physical projects as important bases for policy formulation, accelerate market-oriented reforms of factors such as land, labor, capital, technology, and data, remove institutional obstacles to factor reallocation, strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights, enable enterprises to form an internal driving force for developing new quality productive forces based on market signals, and better leverage their initiative, enthusiasm, and creativity.

其六，发展新质生产力，应促进有效市场和有为政府更好结合，形成长效机制。生产关系对生产力具有反作用，新型生产关系可以推动新质生产力的发展。发展新质生产力与全面深化经济体制改革紧密关联，经济体制改革的核心问题是处理好政府和市场的关系，充分发挥市场在资源配置中的决定性作用，更好发挥政府作用。包括界定和保护产权，维护市场公平竞争，依靠基础设施建设和规则完善等降低交易成本，调节收入分配和完善社会保障，增强在基础研究和重点产业领域的财政投资，运用宏观经济政策熨平经济波动等。同时，发展新质生产力也与企业等微观主体的行为密切相关。解答好新质生产力发展课题，当务之急是切实落实“两个毫不动摇”，稳定企业发展预期，优化营商环境，将民营企业投资增长、创新型实体类项目投资增长作为政策制定的重要依据，加快推进土地、劳动力、资本、技术、数据等要素市场化改革，消除要素再配置的制度障碍，增强知识产权的保护力度，使企业基于市场信号形成发展新质生产力的内驱力量，更好发挥积极性主动性创造性。

Online Editor: Paul

网络编辑：保罗