Developing New Quality Productive Forces Requires Establishing a Benefit-Coupling Mechanism

General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out: “Developing new quality productive forces is an intrinsic requirement and a key focus for promoting high-quality development,” and “the salient feature of new quality productive forces is innovation, which includes innovation at the level of technology and business models as well as innovation at the level of management and institutions.” [1]1 Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era is the guiding ideology of the Communist Party of China under Xi Jinping. Among these, institutional and mechanism innovation is a key focus. Promoting the development of new quality productive forces requires the participation of the government and various innovation entities. The interest demands of the participating parties are not entirely consistent. Leveraging the role of a well-functioning government and an efficient market, promoting the establishment of a benefit-coupling mechanism among the parties, mobilizing the initiative and creativity of innovation entities, and enhancing the overall effectiveness of the national innovation system—these are the main starting points and goals of the current reform of the science, technology, and innovation (STI) institutional mechanisms.

习近平总书记指出：“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”，“新质生产力的显著特点是创新，既包括技术和业态模式层面的创新，也包括管理和制度层面的创新”。其中，体制机制创新是一个关键着力点。推动新质生产力发展，需要政府与各类创新主体参与。参与各方的利益诉求并不完全一致，发挥有为政府与有效市场作用，推动各方建立利益耦合机制，调动创新主体的积极性和创造性，提升国家创新体系整体效能，这是当下科创体制机制改革的主要出发点和落脚点。

With the deepening of the new round of technological revolution and industrial revolution, the extensive development model that relies mainly on increasing inputs of production factors to achieve economic growth has become unsustainable. There is an urgent need to further deepen institutional and mechanism reforms and accelerate the cultivation and development of new quality productive forces. However, new quality productive forces are characterized primarily by cutting-edge technological innovation and its transformation, which must be adapted to the region’s resource endowments, industrial base, talent pool, and research conditions, imposing high entry requirements on all participating parties. Generally speaking, the stronger the convergence of interests among the parties, the greater the resultant synergy and the stronger the driving force. One of the main difficulties in currently developing new quality productive forces is the insufficient synergy among the participating parties. Therefore, it is necessary to consider and study how to achieve innovation in institutions and mechanisms, leverage the guiding and incentivizing role of benefit distribution, so that the participating parties can form the greatest synergy, exert their maximum capabilities, and most efficiently promote the development of new quality productive forces.

随着新一轮科技革命和产业革命深入推进，主要依靠增加生产要素投入来实现经济增长的粗放型发展模式已经难以为继，亟需进一步深化体制机制改革，加快培育发展新质生产力。但是，新质生产力以前沿科技创新和转化为主要特点，需要与地区的资源禀赋、产业基础、人才队伍和科研条件相适应，对参与各方的门槛要求是很高的。一般来说，各方的利益趋同性越强，形成的合力的强度就越大，推动力也就越大。当前发展新质生产力的主要难点之一，就是参与各方合力不够。因此，必须思考和研究如何实现体制机制的创新，发挥利益分配的导向性和激励性作用，使得参与各方能够形成最大合力，并发挥出最大的能力，最高效的推动新质生产力发展。

Participating Parties and Their Interest Demands

参与各方和其利益诉求

As the core driving force of new quality productive forces, scientific and technological innovation includes both the hard content of scientific discovery, technological invention, achievement transformation, and industrialization, and the soft environment of STI management, organizational systems, and innovation culture. Leveraging the advantages of the new nationwide system for mobilizing resources under the conditions of the socialist market economy and conducting organized research are our greatest institutional strengths, enabling us to carry out benefit-coupling among the parties and establish a community of shared interests among the participating parties. [2]2 The new nationwide system for mobilizing resources (新型举国体制) refers to a state-led approach to concentrate resources on strategic technological breakthroughs, adapted to market economy conditions.

科技创新作为新质生产力的核心推动力，既包括科学发现、技术发明、成果转化和产业化这些硬的内容，也包括科技管理、组织体系、创新文化这些软的环境。发挥社会主义市场经济条件下的新型举国体制优势，开展有组织科研，是我们最大的体制优势，让我们有条件来进行各方利益耦合，建立起参与各方的利益共同体。

So who are the participating stakeholders? I believe there are mainly the following five parties: first, scientists; second, the research institutions to which scientists belong; third, science-and-technology-based enterprises; fourth, STI service providers; and fifth, governments at all levels and relevant departments. These five parties are all major stakeholders in STI work, but their interest demands are not entirely consistent. In practice, each party often makes choices and decisions based on its own core interest demands, and in some dimensions and perspectives, there may even be partial divergence. This is an important reason for the current lack of close integration between industry, academia, and research, and the “two separate skins” of science and technology and industry—a common challenge faced by countries around the world. [3]3 “Two separate skins” (两张皮) is a Chinese idiom describing a situation where two related things are disconnected or fail to integrate. Solving this problem requires basing ourselves on China’s national conditions and development reality, studying the direction of institutional and mechanism reform from the core interest demands and decision-making orientations of these five parties, and establishing the most suitable benefit-coupling mechanism.

那么参与的利益相关方有哪些呢？我认为主要有以下五方：一是科学家，二是科学家所属科研单位，三是科技型企业，四是科创服务方，五是各级政府及有关部门。以上五方均是科技创新工作的主要相关方，但五方的利益诉求并不完全一致。在实践中，各方往往会从自身的核心利益诉求来作选择和决策，在某些维度和角度上甚至会出现局部背离，这是造成当前产学研结合不紧密、科技与产业“两张皮”的重要原因，也是世界各国普遍面临的共性难题。破解这个难题需要立足我国国情和发展实际，从这五方核心的利益诉求和决策导向出发来研究体制机制改革方向，建立最合适的利益耦合机制。

First, scientists. Ideally, or under conditions without the pressure of real life, scientists often take exploring the fundamental laws of the world as their highest goal and motivation, focusing most on whether their research direction is at the forefront and highest point of their field, whether it is in the “uncharted territory,” and whether the achievements made in this direction can advance the boundaries of human cognition of the objective world. On the other hand, in practice, the concrete and realistic interests that scientists pursue also include publishing academic papers in top journals, obtaining high-level awards, and academically recognized titles within the scholarly community. Although, driven by the government and the market, they may also pay attention to the possibility of transforming achievements into applications and the corresponding economic returns, for some scientists dedicated to scientific careers, these external returns are often not ranked first. Hence, it often happens that the market only needs scientists to achieve a small applied goal, but scientists take solving fundamental, ultimate problems as their research direction, leading to a deviation between research and application needs.

一是科学家。在理想情况下或者说在没有现实生活压力的状况下，科学家们往往将探索世界的本原规律作为最高目标和动力，最关注自己的科研方向是不是本领域最前沿最高点，是不是在“无人区”，以及在这个方向上取得的成功能否将人类对客观世界的认知边界向前推进。另一方面，在实践中，科学家追求的具体的现实的利益也包括在顶刊发表学术论文、获得高水平奖项和学界公认的学术头衔。尽管在政府和市场的推动下，他们也会关注成果转化应用的可能和相应的经济回报，但对于一些有志于科学事业的科学家来说，这些外在的回报往往不会排在首位。所以经常出现市场只需要科学家实现一个应用的小目标，但是科学家却将解决基础性终极问题作为自己的研究方向的情况，进而导致研究与应用需求偏离的现象。

Second, research institutions. The research institutions referred to here mainly include universities, research institutes, and some institutions with research functions, such as hospitals. The interest demands of research institutions are relatively numerous, among which the core interest is the institution’s ability to gather resources (including funds, projects, talent, and students). Factors positively correlated with this mainly include published articles, undertaken projects, obtained awards, top scientists and teams, etc. The weight and scale of these indicators directly affect the institution’s rankings both within and outside the system, thereby influencing the institution’s status and influence.

二是科研单位。这里所说的科研单位主要包括高校、科研院所以及一些具有科研功能的机构如医院等。科研单位的利益诉求相对比较多，其中最核心的利益是本单位集聚资源（包括资金、项目和人才以及学生）的能力。与此正相关因素主要包括发表的文章、承担的项目、获得的奖项、顶级科学家和团队等，这些指标的份量和体量直接影响科研单位在体制内外的各种排名，进而有利于影响着科研单位的地位和影响力。

Third, science-and-technology-based enterprises. Revenue and profit are the primary goals pursued by enterprises, including short-term returns and long-term growth potential. On this basis, they also consider non-primary indicators such as related social responsibilities. Therefore, the core concern of enterprises is whether their actions and decisions can bring direct growth in revenue and profit, as well as market share and leadership and control over future industries, ultimately indirectly serving the growth of short-term and long-term revenue and profit.

三是科技型企业。营收和利润是企业追求的第一目标，包括近期收益以及远期的成长性，在此基础上，兼顾与其相关的社会责任等非一线指标。因此，企业的核心关切是其行为和决策能够带来直接的营收和利润的增长，以及对市场占有和未来行业的引领控制，最终间接服务于近远期营收和利润的增长。

Fourth, STI service providers. These include STI investors, science-and-technology financial institutions, law firms, accounting firms, auditing firms, intellectual property protection agencies, technology trading agencies, etc. STI services are the support system for scientific and technological innovation and are also a weak link in the current development of China’s new quality productive forces, making them particularly important for the development of new quality productive forces. Like enterprises, they focus on revenue and profit, but due to the specificity of the industry, they pay more attention to social image factors such as industry influence and corporate credit.

四是科创服务方。包括科创投资人、科技金融机构、律师事务所、会计事务所、审计事务所、知识产权保护机构、技术交易机构等。科创服务是科创的支撑系统，也是当前我国新质生产力发展中的薄弱环节，对于新质生产力的发展尤为重要。他们同企业一样关注营收与利润，但因行业特殊性，更注重行业影响力、企业信用等社会形象。

Fifth, the government. Scientific and technological innovation cannot be separated from government decision-making support. Although governments at all levels take developing STI and cultivating new quality productive forces as important goals, central and local governments, in addition to common goals, also have their own emphases and focal points. For local governments, output value, employment, and tax revenue are the core indicators, while the central government also has needs such as national security and international competition and gaming.

五是政府。科技创新离不开政府决策支持。虽然各级政府都将发展科技创新、培育新质生产力作为重要目标，但中央政府和地方政府在共同的目标之外，也有各自的侧重点和着力点。就地方政府来说，产值、就业和税收是最核心的指标，中央政府则还有国家安全、国际竞争博弈等需求。

Interrelationships and Directions for Change

相互关系及变革方向

Under conditions where the interest orientations of the five subjects are not entirely the same, situations often arise where one party is interested and wants to promote something, but the other parties are not interested; what the government wants to promote, the market is not interested in; what the market needs, research institutions and scientists are not interested in. In addition, the discourse systems and behavioral patterns of the parties are also different. There is a vivid saying: “The one who orders the meal does not eat it; the one who eats it does not pay the bill.” [4]4 This is a colloquial Chinese saying describing a situation where decision-makers, implementers, and beneficiaries are misaligned. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out reform of the STI institutional mechanisms, and the key point of reform is to create a common benefit distribution system that allows as many of the five parties as possible to gain, forming a community of shared interests.

在五个主体的利益取向并不完全相同的条件下，经常会出现一方感兴趣、想推动的另外几方并不感兴趣，政府想推动的市场不感兴趣，市场需要的研究机构和科学家不感兴趣等情况。此外，各方的话语体系和行为模式也不一样，有一个形象的说法叫做“点菜的不吃饭、吃饭的不买单”。所以必须进行科创体制机制改革，而改革的关键点就是打造一个尽可能五方都能得利的共同利益分配体制，形成利益共同体。

The author believes that we should follow the principle of “application-oriented, seeking consensus, liberating from constraints, each taking what they need, and government concession,” taking the benefit of developing new quality productive forces as the sole criterion, and breaking through the shackles of institutions and thinking. First, at the national level, policies need to be introduced to support local governments and various fronts in fully emancipating their minds and daring to innovate, and an atmosphere of encouragement, openness, and tolerance should be fostered, so that all parties have no worries. On this basis, local governments must have the courage to take responsibility, dare to be the first, and take the initiative to act. Second, on the premise of full investigation and consultation, a coupling mechanism that can take into account the interests of all parties should be established, with the government playing the role of a coupler, while the coupling actions should be implemented as much as possible through STI service providers using market means.

笔者认为，应该遵循“应用导向、寻求共识、解放束缚、各取所需、政府让渡”的原则，以有利于新质生产力的发展为唯一标准，突破体制和思想的束缚。首先，国家层面需要出台支持地方和各条战线充分解放思想、勇于创新的政策，并营造激励开放包容的氛围，让各方无后顾之忧。在此基础上，地方政府要勇于担当、敢为人先、主动作为。其次，在充分调研和协商的前提下，建立一个能够考虑到各方利益的耦合机制，由政府发挥耦合器的作用，同时耦合行为尽可能通过科创服务方采用市场手段来实施。

Take the ability of all parties to benefit as the criterion for judgment. In the process of advancing science and innovation projects, when the interests of one or several parties are harmed, the coupling mechanism first comes into play, seeking an optimal solution by adjusting the distribution ratios, weights, and interrelations of interests among all parties; if consensus cannot be reached, the government, with a long-term perspective, conducts mediation based on actual circumstances, striving as far as possible to balance the interests of the remaining four parties to achieve alignment of interests. In this coordination process, the government’s short-term direct gains should not increase, so as to fulfill an impartial mediating role; when a win-win situation for all five parties cannot be achieved, the government must cede its own current direct gains, and even cede certain powers, to facilitate positive gains for the other four parties. When ceding its own interests, the government should also adhere to regulatory bottom lines and prohibitive powers, taking measures suited to local conditions while also, from the perspective of the nation as a single chessboard, balancing the focal points of the state and different local levels.

以各方都能获利作为判断标准。在科创项目推进过程中，当一方或者几方利益受损时，首先是耦合机制发挥作用，通过调整各方利益分配比例和权重以及相互关系，以寻求最优解；如果不能达成共识，则由政府着眼长远，根据实际情况进行居间协调，尽可能地均衡其余四方的利益以寻求达到利益一致。在这个协调过程中，政府的短期直接收益不应该增加，以达到公正的居间协调作用；在无法达到五方共赢的情况下，政府需让渡自身的当前直接收益，甚至让渡部分权限，促成其他四方获得正向收益。政府在让渡自身利益时，还应坚持调控底线和禁止性权力，既要因地制宜，又要从全国一盘棋的角度，兼顾国家和不同地方层级的侧重点。

The government, in its role as an intermediary coupler, can exert an incentivizing effect through targeted distribution guidance, using core interests valued by the other four parties—those directly related to the project but outside the interest distribution mechanism—as the primary means of increasing the stickiness of the mechanism. These interests include, but are not limited to: for scientists who have made significant contributions in applied fields, granting them academic status and material treatment equivalent to that of scientists who have achieved success in top-tier basic research; for research institutions, restructuring the evaluation and assessment mechanism, making the direction of advancing new quality productive forces one of their core assessment indicators and bases for resource allocation; for science and innovation enterprises, using policy, fiscal and tax, and market regulation tools to compensate for losses in their own economic gains, market share, and future development opportunities caused by promoting the progress of new quality productive forces across the entire industry; for technology intermediaries, entrusting them with the tasks of systemic coupling, using this as a channel for them to enter the market and engage in science and innovation practice, thereby enabling them to derive benefits.

政府作为居间的耦合者角色，可发挥针对性分配导向的激励性作用，将直接跟项目相关的、利益分配机制之外的、其他四方所重视的核心利益，作为增加机制黏性的主要手段。这些利益包括且不限于：对在应用领域作出重大贡献的科学家，参照在顶尖基础科研领域取得成就的科学家，授予同等份量的学术地位以及物质待遇；对科研单位，重构评价考核机制，把推动新质生产力的发展方向作为其核心考核指标和资源分配依据之一；对科创企业，采用政策、财税和市场调控等手段，弥补其因促进全行业新质生产力进步而造成的自身经济、市场份额、未来发展机遇等损失；对科技中介，赋予其系统耦合的事务，以此作为其介入市场和科创实务的通道，使其从中获得利益。

In summary, developing new quality productive forces must be based on a community of interests in science and innovation. Starting from the restructuring of the distribution mechanism, the leading role of the government should be brought into play, utilizing both the hand of the government and the hand of the market, fully accommodating the interest demands of all parties, mobilizing the initiative of all parties, and forming a joint force to promote the development of new quality productive forces. If related work takes this as its starting point and ultimate goal for decision-making and advancement, it can proceed smoothly; if it deviates from this principle, the work will encounter resistance or even fail.

综上所述，发展新质生产力必须建立在科创利益共同体的基础上，从分配机制的重构出发，发挥政府的主导作用，利用政府和市场两只手，充分兼顾各方的利益诉求，调动各方的积极性，形成合力，推动新质生产力的发展。相关工作以此为出发点和落脚点去进行决策和推进，就能够顺利开展，如果背离了这个原则，工作就会受到阻力甚至遭受失败。

Online editor: Huihui

网络编辑：慧慧