Effectively Supporting the Development of New Quality Productive Forces through Improving the Quality and Efficiency of Producer Services

The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC clearly stated, “Improve the institutions and mechanisms for developing new quality productive forces in light of local conditions” and “Focus on key links and advance the high-quality development of producer services by sector.” Producer services are industries that provide services such as R&D, design, information, consulting, logistics, and after-sales for the production process. Promoting the high-quality development of producer services is conducive to driving revolutionary breakthroughs in technology, innovative allocation of production factors, and deep industrial transformation and upgrading, thereby providing strong support for the development of new quality productive forces.

党的二十届三中全会明确提出，“健全因地制宜发展新质生产力体制机制”“聚焦重点环节分领域推进生产性服务业高质量发展”。生产性服务业是为生产过程提供研发、设计、信息、咨询、物流、售后等服务的行业。推进生产性服务业高质量发展，有利于推动技术革命性突破、生产要素创新性配置、产业深度转型升级，为发展新质生产力提供有力支撑。

Producer Services Are a Key Link in Cultivating New Quality Productive Forces

生产性服务业是培育新质生产力的关键一环

Producer services cover R&D and design services, transformation services for scientific and technological achievements, intellectual property and related legal services, and so on. They involve multiple links in the development of modern science, technology, and advanced technologies, and are a key link in stimulating scientific and technological innovation and cultivating new quality productive forces. Original and disruptive technological innovations often begin in the R&D and design stage. According to the statistical classification of producer services, some basic scientific research, as well as engineering and technological research and experimental development for new materials, new products, and new processes, all fall within producer services. Producer services play an important intermediary role: tacit knowledge created by universities and research institutions is transmitted through producer services to business entities, where it combines with the internal knowledge and technology systems of those entities, thereby evolving into new forms of knowledge and driving the productive forces of business entities toward a higher quality state. Therefore, the innovative development of producer services is conducive to promoting revolutionary breakthroughs in technology and providing support for cultivating new quality productive forces.

生产性服务业涵盖研发与设计服务、科技成果转化服务、知识产权及相关法律服务等，事关现代科技、先进技术发展的多个环节，是激发科技创新、培育新质生产力的关键一环。原创性、颠覆性科技创新往往起始于研发与设计阶段。按照生产性服务业统计分类，一些基础科学研究，新材料、新产品、新工艺研发等工程和技术的研究和试验发展，均属于生产性服务业。生产性服务业扮演着重要的中介角色，高校、科研机构所创造的隐性知识，通过生产性服务业传导到经营主体，并与经营主体内部的知识技术体系相结合，进而演化出新的知识形态，推动经营主体的生产力向高质态迈进。因此，生产性服务业的创新发展有利于推动技术革命性突破，为培育新质生产力提供支撑。

Producer services have a catalytic effect on the generation of new quality productive forces. Developing new quality productive forces requires the formation of new production relations that correspond to them. The emergence of new production relations involves more new production factors such as data, knowledge, and artificial intelligence, which impact the original social reproduction processes of production, distribution, circulation, and consumption, especially affecting the ownership of production factors, participation mechanisms, synergy effects, circulation mechanisms, and distribution rules. Forming new production relations requires, at the micro level, innovative adjustments within business entities to production organizational structures, labor division, and management methods; at the macro level, it requires society as a whole to establish new rules for factor allocation, incentive mechanisms, and circulation mechanisms, and to restructure the collaborative relationships among government, market, and society, thereby driving the renewal of production relations in the direction of compatibility with productive forces, social collaboration, and technological adaptability. Producer services connect domestic and international markets; in particular, services in areas such as R&D and design, information data, human resources, modern logistics, financial capital, and intellectual property extend to all links of the global industrial chain, promoting the innovative allocation of production factors. The internationalization and professionalization of producer services can facilitate the concentration of high-quality production resource factors such as advanced talent, data, and capital from around the world toward the direction of developing new quality productive forces, accelerate their empowerment across various industries, and help business entities remove bottlenecks and blockages that constrain the development of new quality productive forces.

生产性服务业对新质生产力的生成具有催化作用。发展新质生产力要求形成与之相适应的新型生产关系。新型生产关系的萌生涉及更多数据、知识、人工智能等新生产要素，对原有生产、分配、流通、消费等社会再生产过程产生冲击，尤其会影响生产要素所有权、参与机制、协同效应、流通机制、分配规则。形成新型生产关系，在微观层面上需要经营主体内部对生产组织结构、劳动分工与管理方式等进行创新性调整，在宏观层面上需要整个社会创设新的要素配置规则、激励机制和循环机制，重构政府、市场与社会协作关系，从而推动生产关系向生产力匹配性、社会协作性、技术适应性方向革新。生产性服务业联通国内国际两个市场，尤其是研发设计、信息数据、人力资源、现代物流、金融资本、知识产权等领域的服务，延伸到全球产业链各个环节，促进了生产要素创新性配置。生产性服务业的国际化、专业化发展，可以推动全球范围的先进人才、数据、资金等优质生产资源要素向发展新质生产力的方向集聚，并加快赋能到各行各业中，帮助经营主体打通束缚新质生产力发展的堵点卡点。

Producer services play a supporting role in the development of new quality productive forces. Developing new quality productive forces requires production factors that match them, including higher-quality laborers, labor materials with higher technological content, and a broader range of labor objects. Producer services involve many fields such as talent, information, finance, patents, marketing, and brand management. Through integration with other industrial sectors, they promote the integration and reorganization of original value chain links, forming new value chains with stronger value-adding capabilities. For some products that integrate cutting-edge technologies, such as mobile phones, the added value formed by intangible services like operating systems, various application software, and chip design patents accounts for approximately 55% of the product’s value. This fully demonstrates the important role of producer services in increasing product added value. The development of producer services is conducive to the continuous improvement of the quality and capability of laborers and the technological content of labor materials, making technology, knowledge, capital, data, and management high-quality production factors. Thus, when matching new quality productive forces, they can maximize the release of marginal effects, condense the value of high-end factors into the product value chain, and drive industries toward an intensive, high-quality, and high-value direction.

生产性服务业对新质生产力发展具有支撑作用。发展新质生产力需要有与之相匹配的生产要素，包括更高素质的劳动者、更高技术含量的劳动资料、更广范围的劳动对象等。生产性服务业涉及人才、信息、金融、专利、营销、品牌管理等诸多领域，通过与其他产业部门的融合，推动原有价值链环节整合重组，形成增值能力更强的新价值链。一些集成前沿科技的产品，比如手机，其操作系统、各种应用软件、芯片的设计专利等，这些看不见摸不着的服务所形成的附加值，占产品价值比例约达55%，足见生产性服务业对于提高产品附加值的重要作用。生产性服务业的发展有利于劳动者素养和能力、劳动资料科技含量的不断提高，使得技术、知识、资金、数据、管理等成为优质生产要素，从而在匹配新质生产力时能够最大限度释放边际效应，将高端要素的价值凝结在产品价值链中，推动产业向内涵式、高质量、高价值方向发展。

Producer services have an accelerating effect on the development of new quality productive forces. Developing new quality productive forces requires breaking away from traditional economic growth models and paths of productive force development. Producer services run through many links of the industrial chain and can better leverage the advantages of advanced production tools such as artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things, which are part of the new generation of information technology. In particular, the emergence of producer service platforms in recent years has promoted the vertical extension, horizontal expansion, and cross-border collaboration of the manufacturing industry chain, greatly reducing the costs of aggregating, exchanging, and sharing data and information among people, machines, and objects, and accelerating the penetration and precise matching of advanced productive force forms within the industrial chain. Empowered by advanced technologies, the supply and demand ends of manufacturing are closely connected, industrial processes are reengineered, new application scenarios continue to emerge, and the digital, intelligent, and flexible levels of products and services are continuously improved, giving rise to new products, new business forms, and new markets, which become new drivers of industry growth.

生产性服务业对新质生产力发展具有加速作用。发展新质生产力需要摆脱传统的经济增长方式、生产力发展路径。生产性服务业贯穿产业链诸多环节，能够更好发挥人工智能、大数据、云计算、物联网等新一代信息技术的先进生产工具优势。尤其是近年来出现的生产性服务业平台，推动了制造业产业链的纵向延伸、横向拓展、跨界协同，极大降低了人、机、物等数据信息汇聚交互共享的成本，加快了先进生产力质态在产业链的贯通使用和精准匹配。在先进技术赋能下，制造业供需两端紧密连接，工业流程得以再造，新应用场景不断涌现，产品和服务数字化、智能化、柔性化水平不断提升，催生出新产品、新业态、新市场，成为行业增长的新动能。

Four Weak Links in Producer Services That Urgently Need Improvement

生产性服务业亟须改进的四个薄弱环节

There are still gaps in China’s producer services in supporting the development of new quality productive forces, and improvements are urgently needed in four aspects.

我国生产性服务业在支撑新质生产力发展方面还存在差距，亟须从四个方面加以改进。

The capacity for scientific and technological innovation services is insufficient, and functional advantages urgently need to be shaped. The science and technology service industry is an important component of producer services and plays a key role in promoting the integrated development of scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation. Currently, China’s science and technology service industry is still in its initial stage, and its advantages in innovation service functions are not prominent. First, the level of development needs further improvement. In recent years, the added value of China’s science and technology service industry has been relatively high, but its share of GDP is low, and there is still a gap compared with developed countries. In 2023, the annual operating revenue of corporate legal entities in the scientific research and technical services industry was 8,604.64 billion yuan, accounting for only 7.2% of the 119 trillion yuan in operating revenue of producer service enterprises above the designated size. [1]1 “Above the designated size” (规模以上) refers to enterprises meeting a certain threshold of annual revenue, typically 20 million yuan for industrial enterprises, as defined by China’s National Bureau of Statistics for statistical purposes. Second, the depth of professional specialization is insufficient. The development of specialized services such as scientific research, experimental development, and R&D design is relatively slow, and their role in supporting industrial upgrading in sub-sectors such as electronic information, biomedicine, energy, and environmental protection is limited. Third, the level of R&D services for key generic technologies is not high enough, and the capacity to support original and disruptive technological innovation is insufficient. Problems of technological “bottlenecks” [2]2 “Technological bottlenecks” (技术“卡脖子”) is a Chinese political and economic term referring to critical technologies or components that are controlled by foreign entities, creating vulnerabilities for China’s industrial and supply chains. still exist in key areas and links of the industrial chain, such as core industrial software components, raw materials, and operating systems, affecting the resilience and security of China’s industrial and supply chains.

科技创新服务能力不强，功能优势亟须塑造。科技服务业是生产性服务业的重要组成部分，对于推动科技创新和产业创新融合发展具有重要作用。当前，我国科技服务业尚处于起步阶段，创新服务功能优势不突出。一是发展水平有待进一步提高，近年来我国科技服务业增加值较高，但占GDP比重较低，与发达国家还存在差距。2023年，科学研究和技术服务业企业法人单位全年实现营业收入86046.4亿元，占规模以上生产性服务业企业营业收入119万亿元的比重仅为7.2%。二是专业纵深度不够，科学研究、试验发展、研发设计等专业化服务发展相对缓慢，在电子信息、生物医药、能源、环保等细分行业领域，支撑产业升级的作用有限。三是关键共性技术研发服务水平不够高，支撑原创性、颠覆性科技创新能力不足，核心工业软件元器件、原材料、操作系统等产业链关键领域和环节技术“卡脖子”问题尚存在，影响我国产业链供应链韧性和安全水平。

The level of services for transforming scientific and technological achievements is not high, and effective supply urgently needs to be expanded. Currently, the development level of China’s services for transforming scientific and technological achievements still needs improvement, and their role in promoting the extension of the innovation chain to the industrial chain is insufficient, which is not conducive to arranging the industrial chain around the development of new quality productive forces. On the one hand, the service chain is not smooth. Chinese universities hold a large number of innovation resources and research results, but the transformation of results in most universities is handled by multiple institutions in segments, and a one-stop service from R&D to transformation has not yet been formed. On the other hand, professional services are not strong. The development of service markets for key links such as technology appraisal, pilot-scale testing and incubation, inspection and testing, and transaction promotion is insufficient. There are not many third-party institutions and platform carriers with market-based pilot-scale testing service capabilities and full-chain service functions. Some advanced technologies are difficult to transform and apply in a timely manner, affecting product iteration and upgrading and the subsequent development of technology.

成果转化服务水平不高，有效供给亟须扩大。当前，我国科技成果转化服务发展水平仍有待提高，推动创新链向产业链延伸作用不强，不利于围绕发展新质生产力布局产业链。一方面，服务链条不畅。我国高校掌握了大量的创新资源和研究成果，但大多数高校的成果转化工作由多个机构分段负责，尚未形成研发转化一站式服务。另一方面，专业服务不强。我国技术鉴定、中试孵化、检验检测、交易推广等关键环节服务市场发展不够充分，具有市场化中试服务能力和全链条服务功能的第三方机构、平台载体不多，部分先进技术难以及时转化应用，影响了产品的迭代升级和后续技术的研发。

The degree of industrial integration is insufficient, and effective pathways for empowerment urgently need to be explored. Currently, the degree of integration between producer services and industries is not high enough, and their role in promoting changes in quality, efficiency, and drivers of growth is not yet evident. In terms of promoting the transformation of industrial development models, constrained by the development level of overall solution services such as key technologies, industrial software, and digital operations, the pace of enterprise digitalization and intelligent transformation is slow. In terms of expanding the value space of industries, new business forms and models such as R&D design, flexible customization, innovative applications of the industrial internet, and supply chain management still await exploration, and the expansion of value-added space in the service links of the industrial chain is insufficient. For example, China’s industrial internet platforms primarily rely on customized project profit models, with the comprehensive share of functional subscription models being only 15%, far lower than that of well-known foreign platform enterprises.

产业融合程度不深，有效赋能路径亟须探索。当前，生产性服务业与产业的融合程度不够高，推动质量变革、效率变革、动力变革的作用还不明显。在促进产业发展方式转型方面，受关键技术、工业软件、数字化运营等整体解决方案服务发展水平限制，企业数字化、智能化发展进程缓慢。在拓展产业价值空间方面，研发设计、柔性定制、工业互联网创新应用、供应链管理等新业态、新模式仍待探索，产业链服务环节增值空间拓展还不充分。如我国工业互联网平台整体以定制化项目盈利模式为主，功能订阅模式综合占比仅为15%，远低于国外知名平台企业。

The level of high-end specialization in professional services is insufficient, and the vitality of factors urgently needs to be stimulated. Currently, the development level of producer services with high added value and strong industrial driving force, such as human resources, data information, and financial insurance, is limited, and their contribution to industrial development needs to be enhanced. First, the training system for high-end talent is not sufficiently complete, and there is a scarcity of innovative talent that meets the requirements of new technologies and new industries. At present, China’s gap in artificial intelligence talent exceeds 5 million, and the supply-demand ratio for talent in fields such as machine learning and intelligent speech is relatively low. Second, innovation in financial insurance service products is insufficient. The development of new financing tools such as intellectual property pledge loans, equity pledge loans, and equity-debt linkage is relatively lagging, and the coverage of products such as R&D expense loss insurance and product R&D liability insurance is not broad, making it difficult to play a role in financing support and risk mitigation. Third, the flow of high-quality production factors is impeded. With the continuous spread of unilateralism and protectionism, the trend of localization, regionalization, and nearshoring of global industrial and supply chains has become evident, severely affecting the smooth flow of various advanced and high-quality production factors to industries and regions where new quality productive forces are actively developing, and hindering China’s producer services from attracting global high-end production factors and advanced technologies.

专业服务高端化水平不足，要素活力亟须激发。当前，人力资源、数据信息、金融保险等具有高附加值、高产业带动力的生产性服务业发展水平有限，对产业发展的贡献程度有待提升。一是高端人才培育体系不够完善，适应新技术、新产业发展要求的创新型人才稀缺。目前我国人工智能人才缺口超过500万，机器学习、智能语音等领域人才供需比较低。二是金融保险服务产品创新不足。知识产权质押贷款、股权质押贷款、股债联动等新型融资工具发展相对滞后，研发费用损失保险、产品研发责任保险等产品覆盖面不广，难以发挥融资支持和风险缓释作用。三是优质生产要素流动不畅。随着单边主义、保护主义不断蔓延，全球产业链供应链本土化、区域化、近岸化趋势明显，严重影响各类先进优质生产要素向新质生产力发展活跃的产业和区域顺畅流动，不利于我国生产性服务业吸聚全球高端生产要素和先进技术。

Exerting multi-faceted efforts to improve the quality and efficiency of producer services

多方发力推动生产性服务业提质增效

In response to the problems existing in producer services’ promotion of the development of new quality productive forces, sustained efforts must be made in multiple areas such as technological innovation, achievement transformation, industrial integration, factor cultivation, and global layout, to promote the improvement of quality and efficiency in producer services.

针对生产性服务业在促进新质生产力发展方面存在的问题，要从科技创新、成果转化、产业融合、要素培育、全球布局等多方面持续发力，推动生产性服务业提质增效。

Vigorously support the innovative development of producer services such as scientific and technological R&D. Actively advance the construction of innovation platforms, cultivating and forming a number of major technology R&D platforms, national key laboratories, and industrial innovation carriers in fields such as high-end manufacturing, advanced materials, and new energy, focusing on continuous breakthroughs in key core technologies. Support leading enterprises and specialized and new enterprises [3]3 “Specialized and new enterprises” (专精特新企业) refers to small and medium-sized enterprises that specialize in a niche market, are technologically sophisticated, produce unique products, and pursue innovation, a category promoted by the Chinese government to enhance industrial competitiveness. in targeting key areas and critical links of the industrial chain to develop new services such as intelligent design, virtual design, integrated design, and crowdsourced design, enhancing industrial innovation capacity and level. Select a number of leading enterprises and platform-based enterprises with strong industrial chain driving force, information technology innovation capability, and international competitiveness in international science and technology innovation centers as pilots, to build specialized service institutions that promote the development of new quality productive forces. Based on major technological breakthroughs and major development needs, rely on national strategic scientific and technological forces to strengthen basic theoretical research and the tackling of key materials, components, algorithms, and equipment, gradually breaking free from dependence on foreign technology and equipment.

大力支持科技研发等生产性服务业创新发展。积极推进创新平台建设，在高端制造、先进材料、新能源等领域培育形成一批重大技术研发平台、国家重点实验室和产业创新载体，聚焦关键核心技术持续攻关突破。支持龙头企业、专精特新企业瞄准产业链重点领域和关键环节，发展智能设计、虚拟设计、集成设计、众包设计等新服务，提升产业创新能力和水平。在国际科技创新中心选择一批产业链带动力、信息技术创新力、国际竞争力突出的龙头企业、平台型企业作为试点，打造促进新质生产力发展的专业化服务机构。立足重大技术突破和重大发展需求，依靠国家战略科技力量，加强基础理论研究和关键材料、部件、算法设备攻关，逐步摆脱对国外技术和设备的依赖。

Accelerate the formation of an achievement transformation service system covering the entire chain of scientific and technological innovation. Improve service levels in areas such as business incubation, technology transfer, intellectual property, and technology consulting, focusing on segmented market development and application scenario needs, to promote the construction of a number of comprehensive and specialized pilot-scale public service institutions and third-party specialized pilot-scale institutions. Centered on pilot-scale services, promote precise alignment between pilot line construction and upstream and downstream links of the industrial chain. Further promote the participation of universities and research institutes in the construction of new-type R&D institutions, introduce industrial innovation needs, and provide full-chain services of “technology R&D + pilot-scale maturation + technology transfer + investment and financing + enterprise incubation.”

加快形成覆盖科技创新全链条的成果转化服务体系。提升创业孵化、技术转移、知识产权、科技咨询等服务水平，聚焦细分市场发展及应用场景需求，推动建设一批综合性、专业化中试公共服务机构和第三方专业中试机构。以中试服务为中心，推动中试线建设与产业链上下游环节精准对接。进一步推动高校和科研院所参与新型研发机构建设，导入产业创新需求，提供“技术研发+中试熟化+技术转移+投资融资+企业孵化”全链式服务。

Vigorously promote the deep integration of advanced manufacturing and producer services. Adhere to a coordinated planning approach for the development of producer services and advanced manufacturing, accelerate the development of manufacturing services and service-oriented manufacturing, and through pilot demonstrations, technology traction, industrial linkage, and chain extension, promote intelligent, green, and integrated industrial development. Accelerate the deep application of new models and scenarios such as industrial internet platforms, personalized customization, shared manufacturing, and total integration and general contracting in the manufacturing sector, and around the transformation needs of traditional industries such as chemicals, steel, electric power, and equipment manufacturing, cultivate a number of service providers capable of offering one-stop solutions including equipment, software, and systems. Gradually promote the application of domestic equipment, industrial software, components, and basic processes in high-end industrial links.

大力推动先进制造业和生产性服务业深度融合。坚持一盘棋谋划生产性服务业与先进制造业发展，加快发展制造服务业和服务型制造，通过试点示范、技术牵引、产业联动、链条延伸，推动产业智能化、绿色化、融合化发展。加快工业互联网平台、个性化定制、共享制造、总集成总承包等新模式、新场景在制造业领域的深化应用，并围绕化工、钢铁、电力、装备制造等传统产业转型需求，培育一批能够提供装备、软件、系统等一站式解决方案的服务商。逐步推进国产装备、工业软件、元器件、基础工艺在产业高端环节的应用。

Intensify efforts to cultivate various high-end production factors. Encourage the construction of a national open data-sharing platform for scientific and technological innovation projects. Support leading enterprises and platform-based enterprises in leveraging their advantages in data resource aggregation to develop third-party services such as cloud computing, big data, and computing power leasing, accelerate the penetration and application of data factors and “artificial intelligence+” in sectors such as transportation, energy, and manufacturing, promote the digital upgrading of the entire industrial chain, and form a number of typical application scenarios. Focus on enhancing the adaptability of education and training to industrial development needs, and around the high-end, intelligent, and green transformation of industries, improve the construction of disciplines such as machine learning, pattern recognition, and human-computer interaction. Strengthen innovation in technology financial services, and promote the widespread application of new financial tools such as intellectual property pledge financing, supply chain finance, and technology insurance.

加力培育各类高端生产要素。鼓励搭建全国性科技创新项目数据开放共享平台。支持龙头企业、平台型企业发挥数据资源集聚优势，发展云计算、大数据、算力租赁等第三方服务，加快数据要素、“人工智能+”在交通、能源、制造等领域的渗透应用，推动产业全链条数字化升级，形成一批典型应用场景。着力提升教育培训与产业发展需求的适配性，围绕产业高端化、智能化、绿色化，完善机器学习、模式识别、人机交互等学科建设。强化科技金融服务创新，促进知识产权质押融资、供应链金融、科技保险等新型金融工具推广应用。

Strive to enhance the internationalization level of producer services. Steadily advance the opening up of the service sector, increase the intensity of pilot policies for service sector opening, accelerate the high-level development of service industries such as intellectual property, international standards, finance, technology, and consulting, and enhance the international image and competitiveness of China’s producer services. Deeply participate in the formulation of international regulations and standards in fields such as artificial intelligence, the digital economy, and quantum technology, accelerate the development of standards in basic standards, applications, and security for new quality productive forces, and continuously increase China’s voice in the formulation of international standards. Promote the introduction of negative lists for cross-border service trade at the national level and in pilot free trade zones, actively sign bilateral service trade agreements, improve regulations on intellectual property protection and cross-border data flow, reduce approval procedures for cross-border service trade, and lower the cross-border costs of high-end and high-quality production factors.

着力提升生产性服务业国际化水平。稳步推进服务业开放，加大服务业开放试点政策力度，加快推进知识产权、国际标准、金融、科技、咨询等服务业高水平发展，提升我国生产性服务业的国际形象和竞争力。深度参与人工智能、数字经济、量子科技等领域的国际法规和国际标准的制定，加快推进新质生产力基础标准、应用、安全等领域标准研制，不断提高我国在国际标准制定中的话语权。推动出台全国版和自贸试验区版跨境服务贸易负面清单，积极签订双边服务贸易协议，健全知识产权保护、数据跨境流动等方面法规，减少跨境服务贸易审批环节，降低高端优质生产要素跨境成本。

Online editor: Paul

网络编辑：保罗