The real economy is the lifeblood of the national economy and the cornerstone of national competitiveness. General Secretary Xi Jinping's latest important article, "Studying and Implementing the Spirit of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee," points out that we must persist in focusing on the real economy in developing the economy, optimizing and upgrading traditional industries, cultivating and strengthening emerging and future industries, promoting the high-quality and efficient development of the service sector, and building a modern industrial system with advanced manufacturing as its backbone. This important statement not only emphasizes the crucial role of the real economy as the focus of development but also points out the practical path for strengthening the real economy during the 15th Five-Year Plan period.
As of 2024, my country's manufacturing sector had maintained its position as the world's largest for 15 consecutive years, providing solid support for overall economic stability. As the main channel for absorbing employment, the real economy provides hundreds of millions of jobs, strengthening the foundation of social stability and people's livelihoods. The real economy is also fertile ground for technological innovation, providing application scenarios for tackling key technological challenges, promoting the transfer of innovative achievements from laboratories to production lines, and helping to overcome critical bottlenecks.
At the same time, my country's real economy also faces numerous difficulties and challenges. Traditional industries face significant pressure to transform and upgrade, while resource and environmental constraints are becoming increasingly prominent. Development in high-end manufacturing and intelligent manufacturing is relatively lagging, and some key core technologies remain dependent on foreign sources. Basic research is weak, patent conversion rates are low, and corporate R&D investment intensity lags behind that of developed countries, indicating that technological innovation capabilities still need improvement. Enterprises face significant development pressures, with SMEs experiencing severe difficulties in financing and high financing costs, while simultaneously facing rising costs of raw materials, labor, and rent, constantly squeezing profit margins. The combination of insufficient domestic demand and fluctuating external demand has led to supply-demand imbalances in some industries and intensified homogeneous competition.
To consolidate and strengthen the foundation of the real economy, we cannot neglect the optimization and upgrading of traditional industries. We must use technological innovation as the engine, strengthen breakthroughs in core technologies, and address weaknesses in the industrial chain. We must promote digital and intelligent transformation, apply new technologies such as the Industrial Internet and intelligent manufacturing, and accelerate the improvement of industrial quality and efficiency. We must focus on green and low-carbon development, eliminate outdated production capacity, promote energy-saving and carbon-reducing technologies, and develop a circular economy. Based on market demand, we must promote the upgrading and branding of products, facilitate the transformation of innovative achievements, and revitalize traditional industries.
Consolidating and strengthening the foundation of the real economy and developing emerging and future industries are of paramount importance. As crucial carriers of new-quality productivity, cultivating and expanding emerging and future industries can drive coordinated upgrading of upstream and downstream industries, create new demand, inject new impetus into high-quality economic development, and help seize the commanding heights of global industrial competition. It is essential to strengthen national strategic scientific and technological capabilities, guide capital and talent towards key areas, deepen collaborative innovation among industry, academia, and research institutions, and promote the rapid transformation and application of innovative achievements; attract high-quality global resources, and build an open and cooperative ecosystem.
To consolidate and strengthen the foundation of the real economy, it is also essential to focus on the high-quality and efficient development of the service sector. The service sector is a crucial component of the real economy; its high-quality and efficient development can not only drive the transformation and upgrading of manufacturing and reduce production and distribution costs, but also enrich consumer supply and create employment. On the one hand, we should focus on producer services, promoting the deep integration of R&D, design, logistics, finance, and manufacturing; on the other hand, we should upgrade consumer services, developing high-quality sectors such as elderly care, childcare, cultural tourism, and health and wellness.
Ultimately, consolidating and strengthening the foundation of the real economy requires building a modern industrial system with advanced manufacturing as its backbone. This necessitates coordinating both domestic and international markets and resources, adhering to the principles of intelligentization, green development, and integration, and collaboratively promoting the development of traditional, emerging, and future industries. This will drive the transformation of "Made in China" to "Created in China," "China Speed" to "China Quality," and "Chinese Products" to "Chinese Brands." (Source: Economic Daily, Author: Jin Guanping)
