Visitors observe a surgical robot at an exhibition on February 18, 2024 in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province. The exhibition is being held on the sidelines of the Guangdong Provincial High-Quality Development Conference, which showcases achievements of industrial integration in emerging fields such as medical equipment, artificial intelligence and chips. Photo: VCG

As China ramps up efforts to promote new quality productive forces, a group of Chinese and foreign officials as well as institutions which participated in the China Development Forum 2024 (CDF) on Sunday expressed their optimism about its development prospects, which feature artificial intelligence (AI), new-energy vehicles (NEVs) and other emerging industries.

Zheng Shanjie, chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, said during the forum that China is cultivating and developing new quality productive forces as well as promoting high-quality development, which will create more opportunities, and to walk with China is to walk with opportunities, and to invest in China is to win the future.

"China is accelerating the construction of a modernized industrial system supported by advanced manufacturing. New market demand, new investment opportunities and new cooperation projects will emerge in abundance, which will provide broad space for all kinds of enterprises to achieve mutual benefits and win-win situations and joint development in China," Zheng noted.

Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the IMF, said at a symposium during the forum that China is at the forefront of emerging economies in terms of AI preparedness, with well-developed digital infrastructure providing a head start. Establishing a robust AI regulatory framework and strengthening economic ties with other innovative countries will help China power ahead.

"The new quality productive forces are about the transformation of the economy to make it a higher added-value economy. China has a huge industrial base with massive investment in research and development, and we have already seen the results including Chinese leadership in all sorts of new technologies such as batteries, NEVs and the photovoltaic sector," Denis Depoux, global managing director of Roland Berger, told the Global Times on Sunday on the sidelines of the CDF.

China's economic growth model is shifting from the traditional mode to one that incorporates new production factors, and the development of new quality productive forces can accelerate the formation of a new growth model, said Jack Chan, EY China chairman, on the sidelines of the forum on Sunday.

Chan told the Global Times that China's increased investment in scientific and technological innovation and its commitment to promoting high-quality development with new quality productive forces will bring new impetus to the Chinese economy, bringing new opportunities for international cooperation, and injecting fresh confidence and vitality into the global economic recovery.

In the Government Work Report delivered at the 2024 two sessions, China said that it strives to modernize the industrial system and develop new quality productive forces at a faster pace. These efforts include upgrading industrial and supply chains, fostering emerging industries and future-oriented industries as well as promoting the innovative development of the digital economy.