Qu Yongyi: Promoting the Deep Integration of Scientific and Technological Innovation with Industrial Innovation
The deep integration of scientific and technological innovation with industrial innovation constitutes the intrinsic drive, basic path, and key measure for cultivating and developing new quality productive forces. Multiple works within the first volume of the Selected Economic Works of Xi Jinping provide profound and systematic expositions on this major issue. "What are New Quality Productive Forces and How to Develop Them" points out that "scientific and technological innovation can spawn new industries, new models, and new growth drivers, and is the core element for developing new quality productive forces"; "Accelerate the Construction of a New Development Paradigm and Grasp the Initiative for Future Development" notes that we must "persist in the integrated deployment of the innovation chain, industrial chain, and talent chain [1], and promote deep integration"; "Chinese-path Modernization Must Rely on the Modernization of Science and Technology for Support" emphasizes "solidly promoting the deep integration of scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation to assist in the development of new quality productive forces." These important expositions have pointed the way and provided the fundamental compliance [2] for promoting the deep integration of scientific and technological and industrial innovation and vigorously developing new quality productive forces.
Strengthen the foundations of integration and increase the supply of high-quality science and technology. Our country’s capacity for original innovation remains relatively weak, and some key core technologies are still subject to the control of others [3]. We must focus on the key areas and weak links in the construction of a modern industrial system, targeting bottleneck constraints such as integrated circuits, industrial mother machines [4], basic software, advanced materials, scientific research instruments, and core germplasm resources. We must intensify technological research and development efforts to provide scientific and technological support for ensuring that important industrial and supply chains are autonomous, secure, and controllable. Aiming at the commanding heights of future technology and industrial development, we must engage in systematic planning and forward-looking layout, accelerating scientific and technological innovation in fields such as next-generation information technology, artificial intelligence, quantum technology, biotechnology, new energy, and new materials. We must promote the research, development, and application of frontier technologies such as humanoid robots, the metaverse, quantum technology, and 6G, and accelerate the construction of new advantages for the development of new quality productive forces. We should actively utilize new technologies to transform and upgrade traditional industries, aiming for digital, intelligent, and green development directions. This involves strengthening the application and diffusion of digital technologies like 5G and artificial intelligence, as well as green technologies like new energy and energy conservation and environmental protection, within traditional industries to consolidate the "basic plate" [5] of the modern industrial system.
Grasp the key to integration and reinforce the principal position of enterprises in scientific and technological innovation. Enterprises are both the primary participants in economic activity and the main drivers of technological progress; they can most directly respond to and sensitively grasp the market demand for scientific and technological innovation, serving as the main force in promoting the deep integration of scientific and technological and industrial innovation and developing new quality productive forces. We must give full play to the leading role of specialized technology enterprises in scientific and technological innovation and security support, encouraging these leading firms to increase R&D investment, strengthen breakthroughs in key core technologies, and provide services for the transformation and upgrading of firms within their industries, thereby driving the improvement of overall industrial competitiveness. We must improve the mechanisms for the growth and expansion of "Specialized, Refined, Differential, and Innovative" (SRDI) [6] small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and support capable private enterprises in taking the lead to undertake key breakthrough tasks in fields such as industrial software and artificial intelligence, constructing new drivers for developing new quality productive forces. Efforts should be made to promote enterprise-led collaborative innovation among industry, academia, and research institutes, improving decision-making mechanisms where enterprises lead or participate in the demonstration and formulation of major national scientific and technological strategic plans, major projects, and major policies. We will increase support for backbone technology enterprises to lead or participate in national scientific and technological breakthrough tasks and the construction of major innovation platforms. Enterprises should be guided to cooperate closely with universities and scientific research institutions to jointly refine scientific problems based on industrial needs, carry out joint research breakthroughs, and collaboratively train scientific and technological talents, promoting various market entities to accelerate the integration and sharing of innovation resources and gathering powerful momentum for developing new quality productive forces.
Expand the paths of integration and promote the transformation and application of scientific and technological achievements. General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out: "The transformation of scientific and technological achievements into actual productive forces is manifested in the spawning of new industries and the promotion of deep industrial transformation and upgrading." We must rely on our country's industrial foundation advantages and ultra-large-scale market advantages to strengthen the construction of the national technology transfer system. We should accelerate the construction of platforms for concept verification, pilot testing [7], and application verification in key industrial fields, and reinforce the supply of transformation services such as achievement identification, technological maturation, engineering scale-up, and reliability verification. We must improve policy support and market services, promote the application and popularization of products resulting from autonomous breakthroughs, and accelerate product iteration and upgrading. This will allow more scientific and technological achievements to move from samples to products and then to full-scale industries, promoting the "supplementing of chains" for weak industries, "extending of chains" for advantageous industries, "upgrading of chains" for traditional industries, and "building of chains" for emerging industries, thereby ensuring the industrial system is autonomous, controllable, safe, and reliable. The role of "sci-tech finance" should be fully utilized, guiding financial capital to "invest early, invest small, invest for the long term, and invest in hard tech" [8]. We must cultivate and grow "patience capital" [9], support scientific and technological as well as industrial innovation, and guide various forces—including enterprises, financial institutions, and system integrators—to accelerate the application of scientific and technological achievements across all links of the industrial chain, promoting the accelerated development of new quality productive forces and the optimization and upgrading of the industrial structure.