Two workers manufacture LED chips for export at a digitalized workshop in Suqian, East China's Jiangsu Province on September 3, 2024. Photo: VCG

The Central Economic Work Conference, which was held in Beijing from Wednesday to Thursday, set priorities for the economic work in 2025, including the use of scientific and technological innovation to lead the development of new quality productive forces and build a modern industrial system.

First introduced in 2023, new quality productive forces refer to advanced productivity freed from the traditional economic growth mode and productivity development paths. They feature high-tech, high efficiency and high quality, and are advanced productivity required by the new development philosophy. 

The new quality productive forces are currently showing a trend of accelerated development. In the first 10 months of 2024, investment in high-tech industries rose by 9.3 percent year-on-year. In October, high-tech manufacturing output rose by 9.4 percent year-on-year, which grew faster than that of all industries since the beginning of the year, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

Positive cycle

The role of enterprises in scientific and technological innovation is becoming prominent. As of October, the number of valid invention patents in China reached 4.66 million, of which 73.3 percent are held by enterprises. 

In 2023, more than 50 percent - for the first time - of enterprise invention patents have realized application in industrial production, official data showed.

China has been successful in commercializing innovation. As a result, scientific and technological innovations can be more quickly transformed into products and promoted to the market thanks to the country's complete industrial chain system. 

Commercial application is crucial to innovation-driven economic growth, Qi Xiangdong, a vice chairman of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, also chairman of Qi An Xin Technology Group, told the Global Times.

Commercialization accelerates innovation cycles, ensuring the international competitiveness of Chinese enterprises maintain international competitiveness, Niu Liqun, chairman of Shanxi Jia Shi Da Robot Technology Co (JSD Robot), told the Global Times.

Scientific and technological achievements, which were transferred into productive forces, have driven the evolution from traditional to emerging and future industries, while fostering new industries and new models. 

"To survive in the global competition, we must carry out scientific and technological innovations. Innovation is the core of high-quality development of enterprises," Niu said.

JSD Robot has made efforts in research and development (R&D) to complete the creation, innovation and upgrading of products, and the annual R&D investment reaches more than 15 percent of the net profit, Niu noted.

According to the 2024 China CEO Outlook Research Report published by KPMG China in November, entrepreneurs maintain a more positive attitude toward developing scientific research and innovation. A total of 49 percent of the CEOs surveyed listed the "development of new quality productivity through R&D and innovation" as their top concern for future business development.

Additionally, 50 percent planned to increase digital transformation investments this year, and 71 percent expressed confidence in China's economic growth over the next three years, the report stated.

Thanks to the support of government policies, enterprises can focus on innovative development and R&D investment, Niu said.

"Policy support from the government has created a sound business environment and provided more opportunities for enterprises to innovate themselves," Zhu Qiucheng, CEO of Ningbo New Oriental Electric Industrial Development, told the Global Times.

Successful transition

Government planning, policy support, market regulation, and enterprise-driven innovation have fueled China's industrial transformation and upgrading, with innovation acting as a catalyst. The country's innovation strengths have developed at a fast pace in the past few years.

China ranks 11th among the 133 economies featured in the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2024. Meanwhile, China, with 26 such clusters, for a second consecutive year leads in the number of top 100 science and technology clusters of GII, according to a report released by the World Intellectual Property Organization in October.

China also leads in eight innovation indicators globally, ranking third, per the GII report.

The improvement in innovation strengths came from an all-round input. A recent NBS report revealed that in 2023, China's total spending on research, experimentation and development reached 3.33 trillion yuan ($458.2 billion), a 233 times of increase over 1991.

Known as the global manufacturing hub of the 20th century, China has successfully transitioned to become a hub of future-looking innovation, Michelle Mormont and Saemoon Yoon, lead of Innovator Communities at the World Economic Forum (WEF), wrote in an article published in September on WEF's website.

As the second-largest economy in the world, China plays an important role in guiding global economic prosperity, the two WEF experts said.

Despite efforts made in the domestic sector, China adheres to the concept of being open, inclusive, and mutually beneficial in international scientific and technological cooperation. 

As of September, China had already established scientific and technological cooperation relations with more than 160 countries and regions and signed 118 bilateral and multilateral intergovernmental sci-tech cooperation agreements, official data showed.

In November, China lifted foreign investment access restrictions across the manufacturing sector. Meanwhile, the 2024 version of the negative list for foreign investment access reduced the number of restriction measures from 31 to 29.

China's mature innovation environment and large pool of talent have attracted many multinational companies to invest more in R&D centers in China and accelerate the layout of innovation tracks.