Li Xuesong: It is essential to coordinate the relationship between cultivating new driving forces and updating old driving forces [1]
The 2024 Central Economic Work Conference emphasized the need to continuously deepen our understanding of the regularities governing economic work and proposed the "Five Must-Coordinates" [1]. One of these is that "we must coordinate the relationship between cultivating new drivers and renewing old drivers, and develop new quality productive forces according to local conditions." China’s various regions differ significantly in terms of geographical features, resource endowments, industrial foundations, and practical requirements. It is necessary to proceed from their respective realities, leverage comparative advantages, and precisely identify the breakthroughs and focal points for cultivating new drivers and renewing old drivers. Only by developing new quality productive forces according to local conditions and promoting a smooth and continuous transition between old and new drivers can we provide sustained momentum for high-quality development.
Achieving High-Quality Development through Cultivating New Drivers and Renewing Old Drivers
The cultivation of new drivers and the renewal of old drivers is a mutually reinforcing process; only through their effective integration and mutual promotion can the economy achieve sustainable development.
Coordinating the relationship between cultivating new drivers and renewing old drivers is an important measure for promoting high-quality development. The cultivation of new drivers is often accompanied by the rise of new industries, new business forms, and new models, while the renewal of old drivers is often accompanied by the use of new technologies to transform and upgrade traditional industries. Both are vital components of high-quality development. Especially when old drivers face challenges such as shrinking market demand and technological obsolescence, we should adhere to the principle of "establishing the new before breaking the old" [2]. On one hand, we must accelerate the cultivation and strengthening of new drivers; on the other, we must speed up the renewal of old drivers, striving to keep economic operations within a reasonable range. This is the key to promoting the effective qualitative improvement and reasonable quantitative growth of the economy.
Coordinating the relationship between cultivating new drivers and renewing old drivers is an inevitable requirement for developing new quality productive forces according to local conditions. Developing new quality productive forces requires leveraging the comparative advantages of various regions to achieve a qualitative leap in the state of productive forces through the coordination of new and old drivers. For example, regions rich in scientific and technological resources with a high concentration of talent can focus on cultivating high-tech industries and modern services to drive the economy toward innovation-led development. Regions with advantages in tourism resources can enhance the quality and level of tourism services by developing industries such as cultural and eco-tourism, thereby strengthening regional economic attractiveness and competitiveness. In the process of cultivating new drivers and renewing old drivers, different regions should strive for complementary cooperation and promote synergistic development.
Coordinating the relationship between cultivating new drivers and renewing old drivers is an important focal point for promoting the optimization and upgrading of the economic structure. First, it can promote the optimization and upgrading of the industrial structure. By cultivating new drivers and developing emerging industries such as high-tech and modern services, we can increase the proportion of emerging industries in the economy and push industries toward high-end, intelligent, and green development. By renewing old drivers and promoting the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, we can increase their added value and technological content, promoting a more rational and advanced industrial structure. Second, it can promote coordinated development between regions and between urban and rural areas. Relatively developed regions or towns can further consolidate and enhance their economic strength and competitiveness by cultivating new drivers, better playing a radiating and leading role. Less developed regions or rural areas can speed up their economic development and eventually narrow regional and urban-rural gaps by renewing old drivers and improving the competitiveness of traditional industries.
Synergistically Advancing the Cultivation of New Drivers and the Renewal of Old Drivers
To coordinate the relationship between cultivating new drivers and renewing old drivers and to develop new quality productive forces according to local conditions, we must persist in the synergistic application of both. This prevents "developmental growing pains" caused by a disconnect between the succession of old and new drivers. We must adhere to a "dual-wheel drive" approach, which involves both cultivating and expanding emerging and future industries, and accelerating the use of advanced and frontier technologies to transform and upgrade traditional industries, ensuring a smooth transition and transformation of old drivers.
Synergistically increase policy support for cultivating new and renewing old drivers. Through fiscal subsidies, tax incentives, and special fund support, we should intensify the cultivation of new drivers, reduce costs for corporate R&D and innovation, and accelerate the industrialization of new technologies and products. We must provide fiscal support for the transformation and upgrading of old drivers to facilitate the modernization of traditional industries. We should guide financial institutions to increase credit support for both new drivers and the upgrading of old ones, providing sufficient financial guarantees. We must also formulate and implement industrial policies conducive to this process, such as industrial layout planning, entry standards, and support policies, to promote rational layout and coordinated industrial development.
Synergistically promote the upgrading of traditional industries, the development of emerging industries, and the cultivation of future industries. Through technological transformation, equipment renewal, and process improvement, we can increase the production efficiency, product quality, and added value of traditional industries. We encourage traditional industries to adopt advanced information technology, automation, and green manufacturing to achieve high-end, intelligent, and green development. We must increase support for emerging industries—such as next-generation information technology, new energy, new materials, high-end equipment, new energy vehicles (NEVs), green environmental protection, civil aviation, and marine engineering equipment—and strengthen the construction of new infrastructure [3] like 5G networks, data centers, and charging piles. We encourage the integrated development of emerging and traditional industries to form new industrial ecosystems and value chains. In key fields of future industries, such as the metaverse, brain-computer interfaces, quantum information, humanoid robots, generative AI, bio-manufacturing, future displays, future networks, and new energy storage, we should carry out innovation tasks via "unveiling the rankings and taking charge" [4]. We encourage enterprises and research institutions to participate in technological innovation and guide leading tech firms to plan for new "tracks" [5] through internal entrepreneurship and investment incubation.
Continuously Increasing the Proportion of New Drivers
The sustained strengthening of new drivers is the core engine for promoting high-quality development. We must accelerate their growth and ensure their proportion in the economy continues to rise.
Cultivate "new-quality-led" new drivers. These drivers focus on the supply side and are driven by the new technological revolution and new quality productive forces. Given the frontiers of science and technology and China's economic reality, we should focus on: the digital economy driven by digital-intelligent technologies such as General AI, the Industrial Internet, and the Internet of Things (IoT); new energy drivers centered on photovoltaic and wind power equipment; NEV drivers centered on electric vehicles and power batteries; biopharmaceutical drivers centered on the fusion of modern biotechnology and the pharmaceutical industry; high-end equipment manufacturing driven by additive manufacturing (3D printing) and other frontier technologies; and future industry drivers driven by quantum computing, 6G, and other future technologies.
Release "demand-upgrade-type" new drivers. These focus on the demand side and refer to drivers prompted by the qualitative improvement and expansion of demand in traditional fields. Insufficient effective demand is a major constraint on the smooth circulation of the national economy. At this stage, our strategy for expanding internal demand has shifted from "starting from zero" to "balancing existence with excellence." This means prioritizing both quantitative growth and qualitative improvement. To this end, we should: increase the share of residents' disposable income in GDP; improve the social security system to enhance consumption capacity and willingness; and expand the consumption market. We should increase investment in areas of public well-being that "lack support" [6], expanding the supply of basic public services in healthcare, elderly care, and childcare. We must also improve traditional infrastructure—such as logistics, power, water conservancy, disaster prevention, and urban renewal—while accelerating the construction of new infrastructure.
Activate "structure-optimization-style" new drivers. Economic growth is reflected not only in total volume expansion but also in structural optimization. These drivers focus on adjusting, optimizing, and upgrading the economic structure to address prominent structural issues. As the growth rate of total economic volume slows, these drivers become more critical. We should: deepen the market-based reform of production factors [7] to optimize allocation and unleash the potential of labor, capital, technology, and data; accelerate urban-rural integration; and promote coordinated regional development. By guiding population and industry toward more rational distributions, we can promote a high-quality national unified large market and activate new regional drivers. We should also promote the integrated development of agriculture, manufacturing, and services.
Tap into "opening-up-oriented" new drivers. These are released during the promotion of high-level opening up. We should: expand the opening of the service sector, encouraging cross-border e-commerce and tourism enterprises to go global; promote institutional opening up [8] by aligning domestic environments with international rules to lower transaction costs and release "institutional dividends"; deepen international cooperation on industrial capacity, strengthening the global layout of energy supply chains, technology, and talent to integrate more deeply into the global division of labor; and promote the high-quality development of the Belt and Road Initiative, contributing Chinese wisdom and strength to the stability of the global economy.
(The author, Li Xuesong, is a researcher at the CASS Research Center for Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and Director of the Institute of Economics.)
Source: Guangming Daily (January 10, 2025, p. 11)