Wang Ke and Zhang Yongji: Intelligent, Green, and Integrated: Directions for Building a Modern Industrial System
The "Proposal of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Drawing Up the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development," deliberated and adopted at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, makes systematic arrangements centered on "building a modern industrial system." It proposes that "a modern industrial system is the material and technical foundation of Chinese-path modernization. We must persist in placing the focus of economic development on the real economy; adhere to the directions of intelligence, greening, and integration; accelerate the construction of a manufacturing power, a quality power, an aerospace power, a transportation power, and a network power; maintain a reasonable proportion of manufacturing; and construct a modern industrial system with advanced manufacturing as its backbone." This strategic arrangement explicitly identifies intelligence, greening, and integration as the developmental directions for the construction of our country's modern industrial system during the 15th Five-Year Plan period. On the New Journey, we should scientifically grasp the respective connotations of intelligence, greening, and integration, as well as their internal connections and laws of interaction, to contribute greater strength to the construction of Chinese-path modernization.
1. Internal Implications
Building a modern industrial system is a long-term and arduous strategic task. Adhering to the directions of intelligence, greening, and integration requires us both to respect market laws and allow the market to play a decisive role in resource allocation, and to better play the role of the government by strengthening institutional supply, policy synergy, and environmental creation to form a powerful collective force for promoting the construction of a modern industrial system.
Intelligence is the technical engine of the modern industrial system and the core driving force for developing new quality productive forces. The essence of new quality productive forces is innovation-driven, and the key lies in using scientific and technological innovation to drive industrial innovation. Breakthrough applications of new-generation information technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things (IoT) are reshaping production methods, management models, and organizational forms. From intelligent manufacturing to smart agriculture, and from intelligent logistics to smart energy, the deep penetration of intelligent technology has greatly enhanced total factor productivity and given birth to new industries, new models, and new drivers. Currently, the comprehensive implementation of the "AI+" action [1] and the promotion of deep integration between the real economy and the digital economy have become strategic choices to seize the commanding heights of technological development and continuously generate new quality productive forces. Intelligence is not only a technological transformation but also a key force for promoting changes in quality, efficiency, and momentum; it is an important support for the modern industrial system to achieve a leap-forward advancement.
Greening is the value orientation of the modern industrial system and the distinctive background color of high-quality development. Chinese-path modernization is the modernization of harmony between humanity and nature. We must firmly establish and practice the important concept that "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets" [2], using the peaking of carbon emissions and carbon neutrality as a lead to coordinately promote carbon reduction, pollution reduction, green expansion, and growth. Specifically, greening runs through the entire process of industrial development—from energy structure adjustment to production process transformation, and from product design to recycling. Green standards, green technology, and green finance are reshaping industrial competitiveness. Accelerating the construction of a new energy system, actively and steadily promoting and achieving carbon peaking, and accelerating the formation of green production and lifestyles provide clear guidance for the green transition of industry. Greening not only sets a bottom line for industrial development but also opens new tracks and creates new advantages for industrial transformation and upgrading.
Integration is the structural characteristic of the modern industrial system and an important way to optimize industrial organization. In the current era, industrial boundaries are increasingly blurred, and industrial integration is deepening daily. The primary, secondary, and tertiary industries permeate one another; manufacturing and services are deeply integrated; and traditional and emerging industries develop through cross-pollination, forming an industrial ecosystem where "each contains the other." Integration breaks down the boundaries of traditional industrial classifications, promotes the cross-border allocation of innovation elements, the extension and reorganization of industrial chains, and the iterative upgrade of business models, giving rise to new formats such as the platform economy, the sharing economy, and the experience economy. Integration is not a simple "physical addition" but a systemic transformation of industrial organizational methods and value creation logic.
2. Logical Mechanisms
Intelligence, greening, and integration are not three isolated or parallel developmental dimensions but an organic whole that mutually empowers and coordinately advances. Intelligence provides technical support for greening and integration, greening establishes the value orientation for intelligence and integration, and integration expands the space for the practice of intelligence and greening.
Intelligence empowers greening and integration, constructing a technical support system. Intelligent technology provides powerful tools for the green transition. For example, big data and artificial intelligence can optimize energy management systems to achieve precise power demand forecasting and intelligent scheduling. The Industrial Internet can promote the digitalization of production processes, monitoring energy and material consumption in real-time to significantly reduce resource consumption and pollution emissions. Blockchain technology helps build carbon emission monitoring and trading platforms, enhancing the transparency and efficiency of the carbon market. By accelerating innovation in digital-intelligent technology and using AI to lead a transformation in scientific research paradigms, intelligent technology is opening new paths for green development. Simultaneously, intelligent technology serves as the "adhesive" for industrial integration. Digital platforms break through spatial and temporal constraints, promoting coordination between the upstream and downstream of industrial chains; intelligent terminals connect production with consumption, birthing new models such as personalized customization and service-oriented manufacturing. Algorithms and data have become new productive forces [3], promoting the cross-border flow and optimized configuration of elements such as knowledge, technology, and capital. Thus, intelligence provides the implementation path for greening and builds the connecting bridge for integration.
Greening leads the direction of intelligence and integration, defining the developmental value orientation. In practice, strict green standards and carbon emission constraints can force enterprises to increase R&D and the application of intelligent technologies, promoting breakthroughs in green and low-carbon technologies. The rapid development of the new energy vehicle (NEV) industry is precisely the result of synergistic innovation in technologies like intelligent driving, battery management, and charging networks under the guidance of green goals. At the same time, green demand has birthed a large number of integrated business formats. Cross-border integration models such as "Photovoltaics + Agriculture," "Wind Power + Marine Ranching," and "Hydrogen Energy + Transportation" continue to emerge, with green consumption driving the integrated development of green manufacturing and green services. By implementing fiscal, taxation, financial, investment, price, technology, and environmental protection policies that promote green and low-carbon development, and by establishing and improving a green and low-carbon standard system, greening anchors the value coordinates for intelligence and integration, ensuring that industrial development always moves along a sustainable path.
Integration expands the space for intelligence and greening, creating scenarios for synergistic development. Industrial integration has opened a vast world for the application of intelligent technology. For example, the integration of agriculture and information technology birthed smart agriculture; the integration of manufacturing and services promoted the development of the Industrial Internet; and the integration of culture and technology created emerging digital cultural formats. Developing modern facility agriculture, promoting the digital-intelligent transformation of the service industry, and facilitating the construction of a tourism power—every cross-border integration creates new application scenarios for intelligent technology and stimulates new demand for innovation. Simultaneously, industrial integration is an important channel for the promotion of green technology. For instance, new energy technology is penetrating from the power sector into transportation, construction, and industry; energy-saving and environmental protection technologies are extending from end-of-pipe treatment to the entire production process; and the mechanism for realizing the value of ecological products promotes the integration of ecological protection and industrial development. Integration breaks down the inherent boundaries of technologies and industries, allowing the effects of intelligence and greening to be multiplied and amplified.
From the perspective of systems theory, a positive feedback loop has formed among intelligence, greening, and integration: intelligence enhances the efficiency of greening and the depth of integration; greening optimizes the direction of intelligence and the quality of integration; and integration expands the application of intelligence and the scope of greening. The overall effect generated by this synergistic interaction is far greater than the simple addition of various elements, reflecting the application of systems thinking and dialectics in industrial development.
3. Practical Paths
We must improve top-level design and coordination mechanisms. We should strengthen the systemic integration of industrial, technological, and environmental policies to avoid conflicting policy goals and the canceling out of effects. Establish a cross-departmental coordination mechanism to plan and promote intelligent transformation, green transition, and integrated industrial development in a unified manner, forming a policy synergy. Refine the evaluation indicator system, incorporating the level of intelligence, the degree of greening, and the depth of integration into industrial development assessments to guide local governments and enterprises in establishing a concept of synergistic development. Formulate implementation roadmaps by industry and region, specifying timelines and responsible entities to ensure that strategic arrangements are implemented and achieve results. By enhancing the effectiveness of macroeconomic governance and strengthening the strategic guiding role of national development plans, we provide a solid institutional guarantee for the intelligent, green, and integrated development of industry.
Advance the reform of the market-based allocation of factors. Deepen the reform of the market-based allocation of data elements [4] and promote the legal, compliant, and orderly flow of data to provide momentum for intelligent development. Innovate green financial products to guide more capital toward green-intelligent-integrated projects. Reform the mechanism for transforming scientific and technological achievements into practical applications to clear the "last mile" from the laboratory to industrialization. Optimize policies for talent cultivation and introduction, fostering compound talents who understand both intelligent technology and green development, and who possess both professional technical skills and cross-border integration capabilities. By accelerating the improvement of systems and mechanisms for the market-based allocation of elements, building an open, shared, and secure national integrated data market, and vigorously developing technology finance and green finance, we will inject strong momentum into the intelligent, green, and integrated development of industry.
Strengthen research on key core technologies and synergistic innovation. Focus on bottlenecks in key core technologies and organize joint research across disciplines and fields. In strategic areas of competition such as artificial intelligence, new energy, and new materials, strengthen original and leading scientific and technological research to create an independent and controllable technical system. Promote the deep integration of industry, academia, and research, accelerating the conversion of scientific and technological achievements into actual productive forces. Build a batch of innovation platforms to create an open and shared technical innovation ecosystem, facilitating the cross-integrated application of intelligent and green technologies across different industries and scenarios. Improve the new-type whole-nation system [5], take extraordinary measures, and drive the entire chain of research on key core technologies in key fields—such as integrated circuits, industrial mother machines, high-end instruments, fundamental software, advanced materials, and biomanufacturing—to achieve decisive breakthroughs.
Create demonstration benchmarks and promotion mechanisms. Select regions and industries with a good foundation and great potential to build demonstration zones and explore replicable and scalable experience models. Cultivate a batch of "chain leader" (liànzhǔ) enterprises [6] and "hidden champions," allowing leading enterprises to play a guiding role in intelligent transformation, green transition, and industrial chain integration. Support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in integrating into the industrial ecosystem through digital transformation and green upgrading. Summarize and promote typical cases—such as the intelligent-green-integrated development model of the NEV industry, the full-chain green manufacturing system of the photovoltaic industry, and the cross-border integrated innovation practices of the platform economy—to form a demonstration-driven effect.
Refine standard specifications and regulatory systems. Accelerate the formulation of standard specifications for intelligent manufacturing, green manufacturing, and industrial integration, and promote the mutual recognition and alignment of standards. Establish an evaluation and certification system to guide market entities to consciously practice the concept of synergistic development. Implement inclusive and prudent regulation for intelligent applications, green products, and integrated formats, both stimulating innovation vitality and maintaining the security bottom line. Strengthen intellectual property protection and create a market environment that encourages innovation and fair competition. By establishing and improving a green and low-carbon standard system, strengthening the lead of standards, and enhancing internationalization levels, we provide normative guidance for the intelligent, green, and integrated development of industry.
4. Guarantee Systems
Deepen reforms in key areas and crucial links. Break down institutional and mechanisms-based obstacles hindering industrial intelligent, green, and integrated development, especially by increasing reform efforts in areas such as data opening and sharing, the definition of green property rights, and cross-border integration regulation. Promote state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to play a demonstration and leading role, optimize the development environment for private enterprises, and support private enterprises in participating in intelligent transformation, green transition, and industrial integration. Improve error-tolerance and correction mechanisms [7] to encourage local authorities and enterprises to explore boldly and innovate courageously. Focus on institutional obstacles restricting high-quality development and advance deep-level reforms to clear the way for the intelligent, green, and integrated development of industry.
Strengthen fiscal, taxation, and financial policy support. Increase the intensity of fiscal support and refine tax incentive policies, providing tax reductions and exemptions for enterprises achieving integrated intelligent and green development. Innovate financial products and services, developing green credit, green bonds, and green insurance. Improve government procurement policies to prioritize the procurement of intelligent and green products and services, leveraging the guiding role of fiscal funds. By leveraging the role of proactive fiscal policy and increasing the institutional inclusiveness and adaptability of the capital market, we provide strong financial guarantees for the intelligent, green, and integrated development of industry.
Strengthen international cooperation and open innovation. Actively participate in the global industrial division of labor and cooperation, strengthen international scientific and technological innovation cooperation, and introduce and absorb advanced intelligent and green technologies. Participate in the formulation of international standards and rules in areas such as intelligent manufacturing, green development, and the digital economy to enhance our country's discourse power in global industrial governance. Propose China’s experiences and solutions for integrated intelligent and green development, expanding development space through win-win cooperation. Steadily expand institutional opening up, expand the international cycle (of the "dual circulation" strategy), and create an open innovation ecosystem with global competitiveness.
Nurture a favorable atmosphere of society-wide coordinated advancement. Strengthen theoretical research, publicity, and guidance to deepen the understanding of underlying laws and build social consensus. Leverage the roles of industry associations, research institutions, and think tanks to build platforms for exchange and cooperation, promoting experience sharing and resource matching. Cultivate the concept of green consumption and improve public awareness and acceptance of intelligent and green products, using consumption upgrades to lead supply-side structural reform. Innovate education and training models, coordinating the cultivation of talent around scientific and technological innovation, industrial development, and national strategic needs to provide talent support for the intelligent, green, and integrated development of industry.