Strengthen Digital Technology Innovation and Application, Accelerate the Development of New Quality Productive Forces

General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out at the Symposium on Promoting the Full Revitalization of Northeast China in the New Era that “we should actively cultivate strategic emerging industries such as new energy, new materials, advanced manufacturing, and electronic information, actively cultivate future industries, accelerate the formation of new quality productive forces, and enhance new drivers of development.” [1]1 The Symposium on Promoting the Full Revitalization of Northeast China in the New Era was held in Harbin in September 2023. Amid changes unseen in a century in the world, a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation is accelerating and evolving, converging historically with China’s new journey of comprehensively building a modern socialist country. The proposal of new quality productive forces embodies the epochal connotation of the leap in productive forces triggered by the digital technology revolution, has major practical significance, and is an important innovation in the Marxist theory of productive forces. Accelerating the formation and development of new quality productive forces helps to fully seize the window of opportunity presented by the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, accelerate the construction of a modern industrial system, and build new advantages in national competition.

习近平总书记在新时代推动东北全面振兴座谈会上指出，“积极培育新能源、新材料、先进制造、电子信息等战略性新兴产业，积极培育未来产业，加快形成新质生产力，增强发展新动能。”在世界百年未有之大变局下，新一轮科技革命和产业变革加速演进，与我国全面建设社会主义现代化国家新征程形成历史性交汇。新质生产力的提出，体现了数字技术革命引致生产力跃迁的时代内涵，具有重大现实意义，是马克思主义生产力理论的重要创新。加快形成和发展新质生产力，有助于充分抓住新一轮科技革命与产业变革的机会窗口，加快建设现代化产业体系，构筑国家竞争新优势。

New quality productive forces are the leap in productive forces triggered by the new round of technological revolution represented by digital technology

新质生产力是以数字技术为代表的新一轮技术革命引致的生产力跃迁

Productive forces are the ability of laborers and means of production to combine to utilize and transform nature, and are the decisive force in the development of human society. The history of world economic development is the evolutionary process of technology driving productive forces from low to high, from backward to advanced. Currently, with the rise and evolution of the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, digital technologies represented by artificial intelligence, cloud computing, blockchain, and big data are developing rapidly. They not only achieve the penetration and empowerment of industries in all aspects, entire chains, and full cycles but also drive profound changes in human production, life, and ecology. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that “digital technology is comprehensively integrating into all fields and the entire process of human economic, political, cultural, social, and ecological civilization construction with new concepts, new forms of business, and new models, bringing extensive and profound impacts on human production and life.” Digital technology has become the leading technology of the new round of scientific and technological revolution and has endowed productive forces with new connotations. The concept of new quality productive forces reflects the trend of a new round of technological innovation leading economic and social change and development.

生产力是劳动者和生产资料相结合而形成的利用和改造自然的能力，是人类社会发展的决定力量。世界经济发展的历史就是技术驱动生产力从低级到高级、从落后到先进的演化历程。当前，随着新一轮科技革命和产业变革兴起和演化，以人工智能、云计算、区块链、大数据等为代表的数字技术迅猛发展，不仅实现着对产业全方位、全链条、全周期的渗透和赋能，而且推动着人类生产、生活和生态的深刻变化。习近平总书记指出，“数字技术正以新理念、新业态、新模式全面融入人类经济、政治、文化、社会、生态文明建设各领域和全过程，给人类生产生活带来广泛而深刻的影响”。数字技术已成为新一轮科技革命的主导技术，并赋予生产力新的内涵，新质生产力这一概念就反映了新一轮技术创新引领经济社会变革与发展的趋势。

Digital technology has endowed the means of production with digital attributes. The basic constituent elements of productive forces are laborers and means of production; changes in any constituent element will promote the development of productive forces. Means of production include instruments of labor and objects of labor. Marx believed that instruments of labor better highlight the dominant characteristics of a socio-economic era, proposing that “the distinction between different economic epochs lies not in what is produced, but in how it is produced, and by what instruments of labor.” [2]2 This is a paraphrase of Marx’s argument in *Capital*, Volume 1, Chapter 7, Section 1. In the era of the digital economy, digital technology connects, penetrates, and empowers all things, endowing instruments of labor with digital attributes. Digital instruments of labor such as intelligent sensing devices, industrial robots, lithography machines, cloud services, and the industrial internet exhibit high connectivity, strong penetrability, and pan-temporality in computing power and algorithms, which are incomparable to any previous technological revolution. They directly act on the new type of object of labor—data—achieving deep integration with all links of reproduction, breaking the constraints of time and space, promoting the rapid flow and efficient matching of resource factors, and driving the leap in productive forces.

数字技术赋予了生产资料的数字化属性。生产力的基本构成要素是劳动者和生产资料，任何构成要素的变革都会推动生产力的发展。生产资料包括劳动资料和劳动对象，马克思认为劳动资料更能彰显一个社会经济时代的主导特征，提出“各种经济时代的区别，不在于生产什么，而在于怎样生产，用什么劳动资料生产”。在数字经济时代，数字技术链接、渗透、赋能万物，赋予了劳动资料数字化的属性。智能传感设备、工业机器人、光刻机、云服务、工业互联网等数字化劳动资料，在算力、算法上所展现出的高链接性、强渗透性、泛时空性，都是以往任何技术革命无可比拟的，直接作用于数据这一新型劳动对象，实现了与再生产各环节的深度融合，打破了时空限制，推动资源要素快捷流动和高效匹配，推动着生产力的跃迁。

New quality productive forces are the leap in productive forces corresponding to digitalized means of production. Every previous technological revolution has triggered a leap in productive forces, forming a new type of productive forces specific to a particular period. In the era of the steam engine, the invention of the spinning machine and the application of water power enabled productive forces to overcome the physical limitations of the labor process, achieving a qualitative leap. In the era of electrification, breakthroughs in smelting technology, internal combustion engines, and electric power gave rise to large-scale assembly line production methods, and productive forces were further liberated in batch, high-energy-consumption extensive production. In the digital era, productive forces undergo a new leap with the digital transformation of their constituent elements, further forming new quality productive forces. Because the intrinsic attributes of digital instruments of labor are closely related to technological innovation, new quality productive forces exhibit the typical characteristic of being driven primarily by technological innovation. First, the fields involved are new: technology clusters such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, big data, the Internet of Things, quantum technology, and intelligent manufacturing are gradually converging and triggering a “technological singularity,” [3]3 “Technological singularity” refers to a hypothetical future point when technological growth becomes uncontrollable and irreversible, resulting in unforeseeable changes to human civilization. continuously giving rise to new technologies, new industries, new forms of business, and new models. Second, the technological content is high: new quality productive forces take scientific and technological innovation as the engine, are productive forces that continuously break away from factor-driven quantitative growth models, and increasingly embody high-quality development characterized by “quality change, efficiency change, and driving force change.”

新质生产力是与数字化的生产资料相适应的生产力跃迁。历次技术革命都会引致生产力跃迁，形成特定时期的新型生产力。在蒸汽机时代，纺织机的发明和水力的应用，使生产力克服了劳动过程中体力的限制，发生了质的飞跃。在电气化时代，冶炼技术、内燃机和电力技术的突破，催生了大规模流水线作业的生产方式，生产力在批量化、高能耗的粗放型生产中进一步得到解放。在数字时代，生产力随着构成要素的数字化变革而发生新的跃迁，进一步形成新质生产力。由于数字化劳动资料的内在属性与技术创新关联紧密，因此，新质生产力呈现出技术创新驱动主导的典型特征。一是涉及领域新，人工智能、区块链、云计算、大数据、物联网、量子技术、智能制造等技术群逐渐聚合并引发“技术奇点”，不断催生出新技术、新产业、新业态、新模式；二是技术含量高，新质生产力以科技创新为引擎，是不断摆脱要素驱动的数量型增长模式，日益体现“质量变革、效率变革、动力变革”的高质量发展的生产力。

Strengthen digital technology innovation and application to provide the core driving force for forming new quality productive forces

加强数字技术创新与应用，为形成新质生产力提供核心动力

The rapid development and widespread application of digital technology provide the core driving force for new quality productive forces. Therefore, strengthening digital technology innovation and application is the key to forming new quality productive forces.

数字技术的快速发展与广泛应用为新质生产力提供了核心动力，因此，加强数字技术创新与应用是形成新质生产力的关键。

Strengthen digital technology innovation. Digital technology is a typical general-purpose technology under the new round of scientific and technological revolution. Whether it is strategic emerging industries such as new-generation information technology, new energy, new materials, and advanced manufacturing, or future industries such as 6G, the metaverse, brain-computer interfaces, and quantum communication, they all directly or indirectly incorporate digital technology. It can be said that the scope of action of new quality productive forces involves various types of digital technology. Strengthening digital technology innovation is to seize the initiative and gain advantages for the layout of new quality productive forces. For example, accelerating the transformation and diffusion of various digital technology innovation achievements helps to cultivate and strengthen the core industries of the digital economy; utilizing the spillover effects and network synergy effects of digital technology helps to build internationally competitive digital industry clusters.

加强数字技术创新。数字技术是新一轮科技革命下典型的通用目的技术，无论是新一代信息技术、新能源、新材料、先进制造等战略性新兴产业，还是6G、元宇宙、脑机接口、量子通信等未来产业，都直接或间接地包含数字技术。可以说，新质生产力的作用范围涉及各类数字技术，强化数字技术创新就是为新质生产力布局抢占先机、赢得优势。例如，加快各种数字技术创新成果的转化和扩散，有助于培育壮大数字经济核心产业；利用数字技术的溢出效应和网络协同效应，有助于打造具有国际竞争力的数字产业集群。

Accelerate the application of digital technology. New quality productive forces increasingly break away from traditional development paths and emphasize innovation-driven high-quality development. This process depends on the deep application of digital technology. Compared with the extensive large-scale production methods of traditional industry, the cross-temporal, strong-connectivity, and instantaneous characteristics of digital technology can, to a certain extent, resolve conflicts among multiple objectives such as production costs, product diversity, and production cycles, thereby alleviating the problem of overcapacity in traditional manufacturing through flexible production methods. Therefore, accelerating the promotion of industrial digitalization, promoting the deep integration of digital technology and the real economy, and driving the digital transformation and intelligent upgrading of the production methods and organizational methods of traditional industries, especially manufacturing, helps to optimize the market supply-demand matching mechanism and resource allocation efficiency, forging new drivers and new advantages for industrial development.

加快数字技术应用。新质生产力愈益摆脱传统发展路径，强调以创新驱动高质量发展，这一过程有赖于数字技术的深层应用。相较于传统工业的粗放型大规模生产方式，数字技术的跨时空、强链接和瞬时性特征，可在一定程度上化解生产成本、产品多样性、生产周期等多目标之间的冲突，从而以柔性生产方式缓解传统制造业产能过剩的问题。因此，加快促进产业数字化，促进数字技术与实体经济的深度融合，推动传统产业尤其是制造业生产方式、组织方式的数字化转型和智能化升级，有助于优化市场的供需匹配机制和资源配置效率，铸造产业发展的新动能新优势。

Break through key core digital technologies. Currently, countries around the world are vying to seize the initiative in the global scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, stepping up strategic planning and forward-looking deployment for digital technology innovation. For example, the United States has formulated a series of strategic plans such as the *Endless Frontier Act*, the *CHIPS and Science Act*, and the *National Strategy for Critical and Emerging Technologies*, continuously increasing support for key digital technologies. Germany is mainly focusing on “Industry 4.0” to tackle digital technology fields, the European Union has released the *2030 Digital Compass* plan to achieve digital sovereignty, and Japan is focusing on a “super-smart society” to promote scientific and technological innovation. Against this backdrop of intense international technological competition, China attaches great importance to digital technology innovation and has formulated a series of strategic plans and implementation schemes related to digital technology. Some fields are already in a state of “running alongside” or even “leading,” but there are still “bottleneck” phenomena in key core areas. [4]4 “Bottleneck” (卡脖子) is a Chinese political-economic term for critical technologies or components that are controlled by foreign entities, leaving domestic industries vulnerable to supply disruptions. To this end, it is necessary to face cutting-edge digital technologies, strengthen basic research, attach importance to original innovation, and correctly handle the relationships between scientific and technological self-reliance and self-strengthening and open innovation, intellectual property protection and technical standardization, and technological innovation and technological diffusion, so as to build a globally competitive digital technology innovation ecosystem for the development of new quality productive forces.

突破关键核心数字技术。目前，世界各国纷纷抢占世界科技革命和产业变革的先机，加紧对数字技术创新进行战略规划和超前布局，例如美国制定了《无尽前沿法案》《芯片与科学法案》《关键与新兴技术国家战略》等一系列战略规划，不断加大对关键数字技术的支持力度。德国主要以“工业4.0”为核心开展数字技术领域攻关，欧盟发布《2030数字罗盘》计划以实现数字主权，日本聚焦“超智能社会”推进科技创新。在这种激烈的国际技术竞争背景下，我国对数字技术创新非常重视，制定了一系列与数字技术相关的战略规划和实施方案，部分领域已经处于“并跑”甚至“领跑”状态，但在关键核心领域仍存在“卡脖子”现象。为此，需要面向前沿数字技术，加强基础研究，重视原始创新，正确处理好科技自立自强与开放式创新、知识产权保护与技术标准化、技术创新与技术扩散等关系，为发展新质生产力构筑具有全球竞争力的数字技术创新生态系统。

The main direction for digital technology innovation to drive the formation of new quality productive forces

数字技术创新驱动形成新质生产力的主攻方向

Cultivating and developing new quality productive forces is a long-term systematic project. While adhering to systematic planning, it is also necessary to grasp the principal contradiction and the principal aspect of the contradiction in developing new quality productive forces at the current stage as the main direction.

培育和发展新质生产力是一项长期的系统工程，在坚持系统谋划的同时，还需抓住现阶段发展新质生产力的主要矛盾及其矛盾的主要方面作为主攻方向。

The urgent task is to achieve self-reliance and self-strengthening in digital technology. New quality productive forces take digital technology innovation as their engine, and digital technology can provide the “skeletal” support for the formation and development of new quality productive forces. General Secretary Xi Jinping has repeatedly emphasized that key core technologies cannot be obtained, bought, or begged for. [5]5 The “bull’s nose” (牛鼻子) is a common Chinese metaphor for the key or crucial point of a problem, which, once grasped, allows the whole situation to be controlled. It is necessary to grasp the “bull’s nose” of independent innovation in key core digital technologies and achieve a high level of self-reliance and self-strengthening as soon as possible. To achieve breakthroughs in key core digital technologies, the following technical routes can be chosen: First, “concentrated efforts to overcome difficulties” to achieve key breakthroughs. For key core technologies that concern national development and national security, the advantages of the new nationwide system for mobilizing resources should be leveraged for concentrated efforts, with scientific coordination, pooling of forces, optimized mechanisms, and collaborative tackling, efficiently allocating scientific and technological resources and innovation resources, strengthening the national strategic scientific and technological forces, and forming a strong synergy for tackling key core technologies. Second, blaze new trails to “change lanes and overtake.” Digital technology itself is the result of disruptive innovation, with various disruptive innovations and iterations emerging in an endless stream. Under disruptive innovation, enterprises in first-mover countries indeed have a greater “first-mover advantage,” but they also often face the risk of that advantage being replaced when the next generation of disruptive innovation appears. Latecomer countries or enterprises, if they commit to the next generation of disruptive technology, can directly “travel light” and rapidly adopt new technologies due to lower technology switching costs, achieving technological counterattack and catch-up. Cultivating disruptive technologies requires attaching great importance to basic research and original innovation, focusing on potential key technologies with first-mover advantages and frontier technologies that lead future industries, and strengthening strategic planning and forward-looking deployment as early as possible.

当务之急是实现数字技术自立自强。新质生产力以数字技术创新为引擎，数字技术可以为新质生产力的形成发展提供“筋骨”支撑。习近平总书记多次强调关键核心技术是要不来、买不来、讨不来的。必须牵住数字关键核心技术自主创新这个“牛鼻子”，尽快实现高水平自立自强。实现关键核心数字技术的突破，有以下技术路线可以选择：一是“集中攻关”取得关键突破。对于关乎国家发展和国家安全的关键核心技术，应发挥新型举国体制优势进行集中攻关，科学统筹、集中力量、优化机制、协同攻关，高效配置科技力量和创新资源，强化国家战略科技力量，形成关键核心技术攻关的强大合力。二是另辟蹊径“变道超车”。数字技术本身就是颠覆性创新的结果，各种颠覆性创新与迭代层出不穷。在颠覆性创新下，先发国家企业诚然具有较大“先动优势”，但也往往面临下一代颠覆性创新出现后先动优势被替代的风险，后发国家或企业若致力于新一代颠覆性技术，因为技术转换成本较低，可直接“轻装上阵”迅速采用新技术，实现技术逆袭赶超。培育颠覆性技术需高度重视基础研究和原始创新，围绕具有先发优势的潜在关键技术和引领未来产业的前沿技术，及早加强战略谋划和前瞻布局。

The key direction is to target industrial upgrading. Industry is the main carrier and realization form of changes in productive forces. The foothold and breakthrough point in the formation process of new quality productive forces must be placed on industrial upgrading. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out, “Integrate scientific and technological innovation resources, lead the development of strategic emerging industries and future industries, and accelerate the formation of new quality productive forces.” This requires promoting the high-end structure of industry through digital technology innovation and application, and accelerating the development of strategic emerging industries and future industries. Currently, China’s digital technology is moving from the stage of the information internet and consumer internet to the stage of the industrial internet, but the overall level of digital technology driving industrial transformation and upgrading still needs to be expanded and improved. We should seize the opportunities of the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, adhere to the innovation-driven approach of digital technology, leverage the high connectivity and strong permeability of digital technology, and promote the deep integration of digital technology with traditional industries. In particular, accelerate the development of intelligent manufacturing technology relying on the industrial internet, thereby promoting the digital transformation and intelligent upgrading of traditional industries. At the same time, optimize the layout, structure, function, and system integration of infrastructure, build digital infrastructure compatible with new quality productive forces, and carry out digital upgrades of traditional infrastructure, thereby consolidating a modern infrastructure system and helping to build a modern industrial system.

重点方向是瞄准产业升级。产业是生产力变革的主要载体和实现形式。新质生产力形成过程的落脚点和突破口需放在产业升级上。习近平总书记指出，“整合科技创新资源，引领发展战略性新兴产业和未来产业，加快形成新质生产力”。这就要求以数字技术创新和应用推动产业结构高端化，加快发展战略性新兴产业和未来产业。当前，我国数字技术正由信息互联网、消费互联网阶段向产业互联网阶段迈进，但数字技术驱动产业转型升级的总体水平仍有待拓展和提升。应紧抓新一轮科技革命和产业变革机遇，坚持数字技术创新驱动，发挥数字技术的高链接性和强渗透性，推动数字技术与传统产业的深度融合。尤其是加快发展依托工业互联网的智能制造技术，以此促进传统产业的数字化转型和智能化升级。同时，优化基础设施布局、结构、功能和系统集成，构建与新质生产力相适应的数字基础设施，并对传统基础设施进行数字化升级，以此筑牢现代化的基础设施体系，助力建设现代化产业体系。

The key link is to promote the transformation of the mode of production. New quality productive forces inevitably require the mode of production to adapt to them. The deep integration of digital technology and manufacturing has given rise to intelligent and customized production. On the industrial internet intelligent manufacturing platform, enterprises can produce on demand based on real-time big data, allocate production factors, reasonably arrange production plans, flexibly release production capacity, and achieve zero inventory. In this context, enterprises’ search costs, replication costs, traceability costs, certification costs, etc., will all drop significantly, while R&D efficiency, procurement efficiency, manufacturing efficiency, inventory efficiency, transportation efficiency, marketing efficiency, etc., will all be improved. Compared with previous technological revolutions, intelligent and customized production has outstanding advantages in handling the relationship between supply and demand, in which data as a new type of production factor plays an important role. Based on the application of big data, the industrial internet can break through the limitations of time and space, achieve the scheduling and optimal allocation of various production factors through differentiated dynamic matching with business activities and processes at various levels within the organization, and promote the coordinated development of the industrial chain. Data elements, relying on digital technology, achieve the connection between the supply and demand ends, thereby gradually transforming enterprise production from large-scale standardized production to customized production or even personalized customization, better adapting to the rapidly changing market environment and consumers’ personalized needs, and better maintaining the dynamic balance between the supply and demand ends. At the present stage, China’s intelligent and customized production mode is far from being popularized. Therefore, it is necessary to truly focus development efforts on the real economy, accelerate the deep integration of digital technology and the real economy, increase the popularization of the industrial internet, realize the digital transformation and intelligent upgrading of the real economy, especially manufacturing, and accelerate the formation of new quality productive forces through the transformation of the mode of production.

关键环节是推动生产方式变革。新质生产力必然要求生产方式与之相适应。数字技术与制造业的深度融合催生了智能化定制化生产。在工业互联网智能制造平台上，企业可以根据实时大数据按需定制生产，进行生产要素的配置，合理安排生产计划，弹性释放产能，实现零库存。在这种情境下，企业的搜索成本、复制成本、溯源成本、认证成本等都会大幅下降，研发效率、采购效率、制造效率、库存效率、运输效率、营销效率等都会得以提升。与以往技术革命相比，智能化定制化生产在处理供需关系方面具有突出优势，其中，数据作为新型生产要素发挥了重要作用。基于大数据的应用，工业互联网能够突破时间和空间的限制，通过与组织内各层级业务活动及流程进行差异化动态匹配，实现对各生产要素的调度和优化配置，促进产业链协同发展。数据要素依托数字技术实现了供需两端的贯通，从而使得企业生产由大规模标准化生产逐渐转为定制化生产甚至个性化定制，能够更好地适应快速变动的市场环境和消费者个性化需求，更好维持供需两端的动态平衡。现阶段，我国智能化定制化生产方式还远未普及，为此需要把发展的着力点真正放在实体经济上，加快数字技术和实体经济的深度融合，加大工业互联网的普及力度，实现实体经济特别是制造业的数字化转型智能化升级，以生产方式的转变加快形成新质生产力。

The foundational factor is digital technology talent. People are the most active factor in productive forces, and innovative talents who meet the needs of digital technology innovation are an important factor in forming new quality productive forces. On the one hand, focus on the country’s strategic technological needs, promote the rational layout and coordinated development of the talent structure, and strive to cultivate and bring up various complementary talents ranging from strategic scientists, first-class scientific and technological leading talents and innovation teams, to outstanding engineers and master craftsmen, enabling them to possess a multi-dimensional knowledge structure centered on digital technology and to proficiently master the means of production compatible with new quality productive forces, thereby achieving an effective link between the industrial chain and the innovation chain. On the other hand, improve the basic systems for talent development that support comprehensive innovation. Thoroughly implement the “Overall Plan for Deepening the Reform of Education Evaluation in the New Era” formulated by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council, boldly explore in talent education systems, evaluation systems, training systems, and assessment systems, and “recruit talents without sticking to one pattern.” Encourage and guide the vast number of scientific and technological personnel to dare to propose new theories, open up new fields, and explore new paths. Especially in basic theoretical research on frontier technologies, to ensure that scientific researchers smoothly pass through the “window period” from the proposal to the implementation of basic theories, and the “cold bench period” of original innovation breakthroughs “from 0 to 1,” it is necessary to build a more inclusive scientific research management mechanism and innovation culture ecosystem.

基础因素是数字技术人才。人是生产力中最活跃的因素，符合数字技术创新需求的创新型人才是形成新质生产力的重要因素。一方面，聚焦国家的技术战略需求，促进人才结构合理布局和协调发展，努力培养造就从战略科学家、一流科技领军人才和创新团队，到卓越工程师、大国工匠的各类互补性人才，使其具备以数字技术为主体的多维知识结构，能够熟练掌握与新质生产力相适应的生产资料，从而实现产业链创新链的有效链接。另一方面，完善支持全面创新的人才发展基础制度。深入贯彻中共中央、国务院制定的《深化新时代教育评价改革总体方案》，在人才教育制度、评价制度、培养制度、考核制度等方面大胆探索，“不拘一格降人才”。鼓励、引导广大科技人员敢于提出新理论、开辟新领域、探索新路径。特别是在前沿技术的基础理论研究方面，为保障科研人员顺利度过基础理论从提出到落地的“空窗期”，以及原始创新从“从0到1”突破的“冷板凳期”，需要构建更加包容的科研管理机制和创新文化生态。

Online editor: Zhang Fujun

网络编辑：张福军