By Staff Reporters

The new issue of the Qiushi Journal, a flagship publication of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, carried an article based on excerpts from remarks by Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is also the general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, on major occasions between September 2023 and April 2025.

The remarks illuminate promoting the development of new quality productive forces in light of local conditions, a term first put forward by Xi on his inspection tour of Heilongjiang province in northeast China in September 2023.

The term was then highlighted at the Central Economic Work Conference in December of the same year, and in January 2024 was the subject of the group study session of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

New quality productive forces mean advanced productivity where innovation plays the leading role and which is free from the traditional economic growth mode and productivity development paths. They are characterized by high technology, high efficiency and high quality, representing an advanced form of productive forces consistent with the new development philosophy.

Xi highlighted the concept again in a deliberation during the second session of the 14th National People's Congress in March 2024, stressing that new quality productive forces should be developed according to local conditions.

Localities should take into account their own resource endowment, industrial foundation and scientific research conditions to promote new industries, models and growth drivers in a selective manner, and use new technologies to transform and upgrade traditional sectors into high-end, intelligent and green industries.

The integration of sci-tech innovation and industrial innovation requires building platforms, improving systems and mechanisms, and strengthening enterprises' role in innovation. Also, institutional barriers to high-quality development should be resolutely removed.

In the next five years, higher strategic priority must be given to fostering new quality productive forces in line with local conditions, according to a symposium on China's economic and social development in the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030) in April.

The roles of technological innovation and the real economy were highlighted, and efforts urged to transform and upgrade traditional industries, develop emerging industries, and make forward-thinking arrangements for industries of the future, so as to accelerate modernization of the industrial system.

The fourth plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Committee that concluded last month also stressed achieving greater self-reliance and strength in science and technology and steering the development of new quality productive forces.