He Zili: Accelerating the Construction of a New Development Pattern Is the Strategic Foundation for Promoting High-Quality Development
General Secretary Xi Jinping, while participating in the deliberation of the Jiangsu province delegation during the first session of the 14th National People's Congress, emphasized that high-quality development is the primary task of building a modern socialist country in all respects, and that accelerating the construction of a new development pattern is the strategic basis for promoting high-quality development. Deeply understanding and grasping the scientific connotations of this major thesis is of profound guiding significance for grounding our efforts in the new development stage, implementing the new development philosophy, accelerating the construction of the new development pattern, and striving to achieve high-quality development.
I. The new development stage requires high-quality development
Since the 18th CPC National Congress, our country’s development has entered a new stage. Resolving the new problems and challenges faced in this new stage requires the realization of high-quality development.
Overcoming the bottleneck of extensive development requires the realization of high-quality development. Extensive development is characterized by the quantitative input of labor and other productive forces; it manifests primarily as the expansion of reproduction—and thus economic growth—through the continuous increase of the scale of factor inputs. Intensive development is characterized by the continuous improvement of factor quality and the steady increase of efficiency; it manifests primarily as economic growth achieved through the enhancement of labor productivity. Extensive development is not sustainable. As our country's development enters the stage of high-quality development, the conditions upon which extensive development relied have undergone major changes: the demographic dividend [1] is gradually disappearing, and labor costs are steadily rising; capital profit levels are tending to decline, and investment momentum is weakening; resource constraints are becoming rigid and are restricting economic development. This means the extensive development model is difficult to sustain. To achieve continuous and rapid economic growth and high-quality development, we must strengthen technological innovation, institutional innovation, and management innovation. We must rely on innovation to lead development, adhere to the developmental principle of centering on quality and efficiency, and accelerate the transformation of the development mode from extensive to intensive development, thereby laying a solid foundation for achieving high-quality development and promoting the building of a modern socialist country in all respects.
The people's aspirations for a better life require the realization of high-quality development. As our country’s development enters a new stage, the long-standing situation of a "shortage economy" and insufficient supply has undergone a fundamental change. The people’s aspirations for a better life have shifted from "whether there is enough" to "how good it is." Everyone expects more stable jobs, more satisfying income, more comfortable living conditions, more reliable social security, better education, and higher-level medical and health services. In short, the people’s requirements for quality of life are becoming higher and higher. At the same time, although economic development has achieved remarkable successes, the quality of product supply is not yet high enough, the supply structure is not sufficiently optimized, and the supply system cannot yet match high-quality demand. It does not match the fundamental aim of meeting the people's needs for a better life, which is essential for building a modern socialist country in all respects. This requires us to place the basis of development on improving quality and efficiency, using high-quality development to meet the people's needs for a better life.
Changes in the principal contradiction in society [2] require the realization of high-quality development. Since the Reform and Opening-up, the level of our country’s social productive forces has significantly improved overall, and our social production capacity has entered the world's leading ranks in many aspects. The more prominent problem now is unbalanced and inadequate development. This is mainly manifested in the fact that innovation capacity does not yet meet the requirements of high-quality development, the agricultural foundation is not solid, the gap between urban and rural regional development and income distribution is relatively large, ecological and environmental protection has a long way to go, there are many shortcomings in the protection of people's livelihoods, and there are still weaknesses in social governance. In short, unbalanced development means there are imbalances in various regions, fields, and aspects, which constitutes a serious constraint on the improvement of the overall level of economic development; inadequate development means that our country's socialist modernization still has a long way to go. As the new journey of building a modern socialist country in all respects begins, focusing on solving the problem of unbalanced and inadequate development has become an urgent task. The essence of the problem of unbalanced and inadequate development lies in the extensive mode of development, low quality and efficiency of development, and insufficient development momentum. To solve the problem of unbalanced and inadequate development, we must achieve high-quality development.
II. Leading high-quality development with the new development philosophy
High-quality development is the strategic goal of our country's development. To achieve high-quality development, we must take the new development philosophy as our guide. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out, "The new development philosophy and high-quality development are inherently unified; high-quality development is development that embodies the new development philosophy." The new development philosophy reveals the laws governing high-quality economic development and provides the fundamental compliance for promoting it.
High-quality development must persist in being led by innovation. Innovation leading development is an objective law of economic development. Science and technology are the primary productive forces; technological progress will greatly improve labor productivity, significantly increasing the output of social wealth while saving social labor. Currently, a new round of technological and industrial revolution is poised to break out; major disruptive technologies are constantly emerging, and the speed of transforming scientific and technological achievements is accelerating. New advantages in international competition are increasingly reflected in innovation capacity; whoever takes the first step in innovation will be able to seize the initiative in leading development. Our country's total economic volume has jumped to second in the world, but it is "large but not strong" [3], particularly in terms of innovation capacity, which has become a restrictive factor for our high-quality development. Leading and driving development through innovation is the only path to achieving high-quality development. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that innovation is the primary driving force leading development; to grasp innovation is to grasp development, and to plan for innovation is to plan for the future. We must adapt to the trend of the new round of technological and industrial revolution, focus on promoting the networking and intelligentization of production organization methods, and continuously improve innovation capacity, brand influence, and core competitiveness; we must continuously optimize the supply system, improve supply quality, and continuously meet the personalized, diverse, and constantly upgrading needs of the masses; we must take innovation as the driving force to continuously improve labor efficiency, capital efficiency, land efficiency, resource efficiency, and environmental efficiency, and continuously increase the contribution rate of scientific and technological progress; we must adhere to the center of quality and efficiency to ensure that investment yields returns, enterprises make profits, employees have income, and the government collects taxes; we must focus on breaking away from the obsession with scale and speed, cultivate an awareness of quality and efficiency, implement the innovation-driven strategy, and promote the ascent of our country's economic development from extensive expansion to intensive development.
High-quality development must focus on enhancing the overall coordination of development. Materialist dialectics holds that all things are universally connected; things and their various elements influence and restrict each other. The whole world is an interconnected whole and an interacting system. According to the requirements of dialectics, achieving high-quality economic development means ensuring the overall coordinated development of all sectors and regions of the national economy on the basis of being innovation-driven. To this end, we must both focus on resolving development difficulties and mending "short boards" [4], while also consolidating and deepening our development advantages; we must follow the law of the dialectical unity of balanced and unbalanced development, emphasizing fairness in development opportunities and equilibrium in resource allocation; we must establish a complete industrial system, achieving independent control and safe, efficient operation of industrial and supply chains; we must achieve balanced development between the internal supply system and demand system of the real economy, using high-quality supply to meet high-quality demand; we must ensure that the major proportional relationships and spatial layout of the national economy are reasonable, that economic development is steady, and that no major fluctuations occur; we must ensure the balanced development of the real economy and the virtual economy, prevent the shift from the "real to the virtual" [5], and effectively prevent and resolve major economic and financial risks.
High-quality development must focus on promoting the harmonious coexistence of man and nature. Achieving high-quality development requires not only that the mode of economic development be oriented toward quality and efficiency, but also that the harmonious coexistence of man and nature be promoted. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Respecting, adapting to, and protecting nature is an inherent requirement for building a modern socialist country in all respects. We must firmly establish and practice the concept that lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets, and plan development from the height of harmonious coexistence between man and nature." To this end, we must adhere to the basic national policy of resource conservation and environmental protection, protect the ecological environment as we protect our own eyes, and promote the formation of green development modes and lifestyles; we must resolutely discard development models and practices that damage or even destroy the ecological environment, and must never exchange economic growth for environmental degradation; we must steadfastly promote green development and drive the substantial multiplication of natural capital.
High-quality development must focus on promoting high-level opening-up. To promote high-quality development through high-level opening-up, we must focus on improving the quality of investment attraction by expanding openness, emphasizing the absorption of technological innovation capabilities, advanced management experience, and high-quality talents carried by international investment; we must support our enterprises in expanding foreign investment and trade through increased openness, promoting the "going out" of equipment, technology, standards, and services, and upgrading our position in global value chains; we must carry out the introduction of talent and intelligence on a larger scale, in wider fields, and at higher levels through increased openness, further expanding international exchange and cooperation in talent and intelligence to achieve complementary advantages and win-win cooperation; we must focus on strengthening the introduction of foreign capital through opening-up, better playing the important role of foreign capital in promoting the development of the real economy, while also focusing on international cooperation in production capacity to resolve overcapacity in the real economy and promote its high-quality development. Clearly, expanding opening-up is of great significance for achieving high-quality economic development; to achieve high-quality development, we must implement high-level opening-up.
High-quality development must be shared development. Shared development is the fundamental principle leading high-quality economic development, and is the starting point and ultimate goal of promoting it; it defines the essence and indicates the direction of high-quality development. To lead high-quality development with shared development, we must adhere to the principal position of the people, adapt to the people's aspirations for a better life, and continuously realize, safeguard, and develop the fundamental interests of the broadest masses of the people, ensuring that development is for the people, relies on the people, and its fruits are shared by the people; we must improve the quality and efficiency of economic development through deepening reform and innovation, producing more and better material and spiritual products to continuously meet the people's growing material and cultural needs; we must fully mobilize the production enthusiasm, initiative, and creativity of laborers in all industries; we must improve ownership relations in the primary stage of socialism, adjust the income distribution pattern, improve the market system and market order, safeguard social fairness and justice, and promote more obvious progress toward common prosperity.
III. Promoting high-quality development with the new development pattern
The CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, based on changes in our country's development stage, environment, and conditions, made the major decision to build a new development pattern with the domestic cycle as the mainstay and the domestic and international dual cycles promoting each other. The new development pattern embodies the requirements of high-quality development, serves as the strategic basis for achieving high-quality development, and possesses a series of new characteristics.
The new development pattern is oriented toward enhancing independent innovation capability, providing powerful momentum for high-quality development. Building a new development pattern means basing ourselves on our own advantages, strengthening the building of independent innovation capacity, striving to break through key core technologies, seizing the commanding heights of technological competition and future development, and achieving high-level self-reliance and self-strengthening in science and technology. We must accelerate the construction and improvement of the "new-type whole-nation system" [6] for tackling key core technologies, build innovation service platforms for technological progress, promote the close integration of technology and the economy, and comprehensively enhance the technological content of economic development. The government should improve its strategic planning level and do a good job in creating the innovation environment, guiding the direction, and providing services. Enterprises are an important force in the close integration of technology and economics; they should become the main body for technological innovation decision-making, R&D investment, scientific research organization, and the transformation of achievements. Talent is the primary resource for innovation. Without advantages in talent, there can be no advantages in innovation, technology, or industry. We must improve the systems and mechanisms for gathering and utilizing talent and create a policy environment where everyone can make the most of their talents.
The new development pattern aims to expand internal demand, providing powerful market support for high-quality development. Building a new development pattern means adapting to major changes in the external economic environment and conditions, taking the satisfaction of domestic demand as our basic foothold, and implementing the strategy of expanding internal demand to provide powerful market support for high-quality development. That is, we must focus on playing the key role of investment, continuously promoting investment to "mend short boards" in key areas, and accelerating infrastructure construction in fields such as transportation, energy, water conservancy, ecology, and logistics. We must improve social and livelihood infrastructure, mend shortcomings in municipal infrastructure, implement actions for the construction and transformation of "smart" municipal infrastructure, accelerate the construction of a national integrated big data center system, and speed up the digitalization and intelligentization of all sectors of the national economy. We must focus on playing the foundational role of consumption, adapting to the trend of consumption upgrading, comprehensively promoting consumption, upgrading traditional consumption, fostering new types of consumption, expanding service consumption, appropriately increasing public consumption, and focusing on meeting personalized, diverse, and high-quality consumption needs.
Building the new development pattern is rooted in self-reliance and self-improvement, ensuring that high-quality development moves forward steadily and reaches far. To accelerate the construction of the new development pattern, we must, on the international front, vigorously strengthen international cooperation and promote the formation of international consensuses and norms that safeguard the security of global industrial and supply chains and eliminate interference from non-economic factors; we should strive through international cooperation to block the egregious actions of the United States in its attack on global industrial and supply chains. Domestically, we must promote the construction of a unified national market, facilitate the orderly flow and rational clustering of factors of production, and transform our country's endowment advantages of a super-large-scale market into powerful innovative forces and competitiveness. We must focus on supporting scientific and technological innovation, forge "killer" [7] technologies, and build independent, controllable, safe, and reliable domestic production and supply systems in sectors and nodes that affect national security, thereby strengthening our country's capacity for self-reliance and self-improvement in science, technology, and industry. We must focus on deeply cultivating the foundations of industrial and supply chains, elevate the level of industrial and supply chain modernization, create alternative sources for important manufactured products and supply channels, and form necessary industrial backup systems.
The new development pattern takes the strengthening of the real economy [8] and manufacturing as its focal point of work, laying a solid industrial foundation for high-quality development. In the new stage of development, building the new development pattern means focusing on strengthening the development of the real economy and manufacturing. Specifically, this means actively encouraging manufacturing enterprises to increase investment in technological renovation and accelerate the application of big data, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things (IoT). We must treat the development of intelligent manufacturing as the main direction of attack, advance the construction of national intelligent manufacturing demonstration zones and manufacturing innovation centers, and push "Made in China" toward the middle and high ends [9]. We should strengthen the leading functions of high-end industries, persist in the strategic positioning of modern service industries as the main body and advanced manufacturing as the pillar, and strive to master core links of the industrial chain while occupying the high end of the value chain. We must create a group of advanced manufacturing clusters with international competitiveness, keep the "roots" of key industrial chain links within the country, and ensure the self-reliance, self-improvement, and high-quality development of manufacturing. We should strengthen financial regulation, prevent financial capital from engaging in self-circulation [10], self-service, and self-expansion, and establish institutional mechanisms for finance to effectively support manufacturing. We must improve the regional layout of manufacturing, coordinate the coordinated development of manufacturing across different regions, promote the orderly transfer of manufacturing from economically developed regions to less developed regions, and effectively curb the momentum of manufacturing shifting overseas. We should actively carry out international cooperation in production capacity, strive to resolve excess manufacturing capacity, and continuously optimize the supply system and supply quality. Finally, we must optimize the business environment, protect the legitimate rights and interests of foreign businesses, and focus on improving the quality of investment attraction for the real economy and manufacturing.
The new development pattern demands higher-level opening up to provide conditions for high-quality development. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Economic globalization is an irreversible historical trend, providing a powerful impetus for the development of the world economy. To call it a historical trend means its development does not change according to human will. Humanity can understand, conform to, and apply historical laws, but cannot stop historical laws from taking effect. The great trend of history will surely surge forward." The historical achievements made in our country's economic development are closely related to our participation in economic globalization; persisting in opening up to the outside world is the magic weapon [11] for achieving rapid economic development. Under the new situation, we must use the construction of the new development pattern as a lever to conform to the trend of economic globalization and establish a system of high-level opening up. We must create new advantages for participating in international cooperation and competition, and lead and guide economic globalization toward a direction that is open, inclusive, balanced, and beneficial to all. This will help boost the world economy onto a path of strong, sustainable, balanced, and inclusive growth, contributing to the noble goal of building a community with a shared future for humanity and achieving win-win results for the people of all countries.