Gao Fan: Balance All Factors to Accelerate the Development of New Quality Productive Forces
The report of the 20th National Congress of the CPC emphasized that "high-quality development is the primary task in building a modern socialist country in all respects." During the eleventh collective study session of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that "developing new quality productive forces is an intrinsic requirement and a critical focus for promoting high-quality development." There is a close relationship between building a modern socialist country in all respects, promoting high-quality development, and developing new quality productive forces; this reflects the salient characteristics of coordinating strategy with tactics and integrating trends with pathways.
New quality productive forces constitute a new category in the theory of productive forces, and developing them is a new subject in our country's social practice. We must analyze the formative factors and changing trends of productive forces, align with the basic characteristics and core hallmarks of new quality productive forces, and highlight the role of new relations of production in promoting their development. Developing new quality productive forces involves a profound grasp of the theory and practice of productive forces, their historical development and trends, and their driving subjects and dynamics. It is a dynamic process closely linked to multiple fields within the national economy. Proceeding from a systems perspective and the overall situation, the development of new quality productive forces should uphold the principle of coordinating all factors [1], gathering synergy from various parties to form powerful kinetic energy.
First, in developing new quality productive forces, we should strive to improve the efficiency of factor combinations while simultaneously accounting for adjustments in the dimension of factor supply. Marxist political economy emphasizes the role of laborers, means of labor, objects of labor, and their combinations in productive forces. Currently, the scale of China’s working-age population is shrinking and its proportion is declining; the state of factor supply is undergoing a profound transformation. We need to stimulate the "population dividend" by improving the quality of human capital and incorporating knowledge and data into the scope of factors. Considering that the supply of tangible factors is often subject to quantitative constraints, the development of new quality productive forces must shift its focus to the efficiency of factor combinations. Within this, a substantial increase in total factor productivity (TFP) is the core hallmark of forming new quality productive forces, as it is more durable and robust. Therefore, we must promote the reallocation of factors and innovate the methods of factor combination, ensuring that different combinations embody the characteristics of high technology, high efficiency, and high quality.
Second, in developing new quality productive forces, we should coordinately advance technological innovation and institutional innovation, placing greater emphasis on the driving role of institutional change in technological innovation. New quality productive forces are engendered by revolutionary technological breakthroughs, the innovative allocation of production factors, and deep industrial transformation and upgrading. Compared to traditional productive forces, new quality productive forces more prominently feature the role of science and technology in the production process. Developing new quality productive forces must take technological innovation as the core driving force: increasing the level of R&D investment, expanding the ranks of scientific researchers, improving integrated platforms for industry-university-research-application [2], and promoting the coordinated and integrated development of education, technology, and talent. From the perspective of systems theory, technological innovation occurs within a specific institutional environment; institutional change is an objective requirement for technological innovation. Only under the condition that institutions are adjusted to form new relations of production can technological innovation and its supporting role for productive forces be fundamentally guaranteed. To this end, we must comprehensively deepen reform and opening up, particularly the reform of the economic system, to construct a high-level socialist market economy and stimulate the innovative vitality of various micro-entities. Through optimization at the institutional level, we can provide innovators with a more relaxed atmosphere, more sufficient incentives, and more stable expectations.
Third, in developing new quality productive forces, we should coordinate supply-driven and demand-led approaches, particularly by resolving the main bottlenecks affecting demand expansion. Productive forces represent the capacity of humans to utilize and transform nature; at the micro level, this capacity is usually manifested in the level of product or service supply by enterprises. Developing new quality productive forces requires attention to the supply side—that is, enterprises forming new products, technologies, formats, and models during the production process. Changes on the supply side shape the scale, level, and structure of consumption on the demand side. At the same time, productive forces cannot exist in isolation from demand; the supply of products or services by enterprises only gains meaning when it is converted into consumption through exchange. Developing new quality productive forces must be oriented toward meeting the needs of well-rounded human development, giving full play to the leading function of demand in the development of productive forces. We must actively adapt to changes in the consumption structure of residents, timely incorporating emerging demands such as "green" products and elderly care into the production system. We must strive to narrow the income gap between urban and rural areas, regions, and industries, continuously advance the integration of urban and rural social security systems, and actively promote high-level opening up to the outside world. In the process of expanding demand, we must accurately transmit market signals to the supply side to effectively leverage the role of demand-side pull.
Fourth, in developing new quality productive forces, we should give holistic consideration to both efficiency growth and the distribution of outcomes, fully assessing and responding to multiple potential effects. In terms of economic accounting, the development of productive forces is centrally reflected in the growth of GDP. Developing new quality productive forces means promoting a shift in the mode of development through technological innovation and institutional change, forming new drivers of development, advancing the improvement of total factor productivity, and promoting the effective qualitative improvement and reasonable quantitative growth of the economy. The development of new quality productive forces is inevitably accompanied by growth in efficiency, which significantly promotes the growth of social wealth. At the same time, the process and results of developing new quality productive forces vary across different fields. This typically occurs first in sectors or enterprises that are sensitive to market changes and possess outstanding innovation capabilities. These sectors or enterprises often belong to capital-, technology-, and knowledge-intensive industries; their demand for high-tech talent increases, while the number of jobs available for general laborers may decrease. Thus, while new quality productive forces improve overall production efficiency, they may impact the income and employment status of different groups. This non-uniform characteristic of outcome distribution deserves attention. We must better coordinate development and security, adhere to the general principle of seeking progress while maintaining stability, and coordinate the development of new quality productive forces and traditional productive forces according to the needs of the social division of labor. We must also do a good job in improving the social security system, reasonably regulating income distribution, and stabilizing and expanding employment.
Fifth, in developing new quality productive forces, we should combine top-level design with local practice to fully release the potential for innovation and exploration in different regions. China is a large developing country with differences in resource endowments and industrial characteristics across regions. Developing new quality productive forces requires strengthening top-level design and exploring development paths under the nation's overall deployment and strategic planning. To better serve the building of a great modern socialist country, we should establish medium- and long-term strategic plans for the development of new quality productive forces at the macro level, optimize the spatial layout of productive forces, and advance basic research and key industries by leveraging the advantages of the new nationwide system [3] and issuing industrial guidance policies. We should also facilitate the development of new quality productive forces through the development of technology-focused finance and green finance. Considering the characteristics of a large population and vast territory, while improving top-level design, we should grant local authorities the necessary space for exploration. By improving performance evaluation mechanisms and fiscal management systems, we should encourage localities to develop new quality productive forces in light of local conditions, encouraging them to promote innovation in different industries or different links of the industrial chain based on their own conditions and comparative advantages. This will form a development landscape characterized by differentiated development, complementary advantages, "a hundred flowers blooming," and "a hundred boats competing" [4].
Sixth, in developing new quality productive forces, we should promote the better integration of an effective market and a capable government to form a long-term mechanism. Relations of production react upon productive forces, and new relations of production can promote the development of new quality productive forces. Developing new quality productive forces is closely linked with comprehensively deepening economic system reform. The core issue of economic system reform is handling the relationship between the government and the market well—giving full play to the decisive role of the market in resource allocation and better playing the role of the government. This includes defining and protecting property rights, maintaining fair market competition, reducing transaction costs through infrastructure construction and the refinement of rules, regulating income distribution and improving social security, strengthening fiscal investment in basic research and key industrial fields, and using macroeconomic policies to smooth out economic fluctuations. At the same time, the development of new quality productive forces is closely related to the behavior of micro-entities such as enterprises. To answer the question of how to develop new quality productive forces, the urgent task is to earnestly implement the "two unswervinglys" [5], stabilize enterprise development expectations, and optimize the business environment. We should take the growth of private enterprise investment and innovative physical project investment as important bases for policy formulation, accelerate the market-based reform of factors such as land, labor, capital, technology, and data, eliminate institutional barriers to factor reallocation, and strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights. This will enable enterprises to form the internal drive to develop new quality productive forces based on market signals, allowing them to better exercise their initiative and creativity.