The 2024 Beijing International Automobile Exhibition was abuzz with over 1,500 automotive OEMs and parts manufacturers worldwide, showcasing 278 new models of electric vehicles.
China's smart networked NEVs, such as the Xiaomi SU7 and Huawei AITO, took center stage, sparking discussions on new quality productive forces.
Statistics reveal that in 2023, China dominated the global NEV market with production and sales volumes exceeding 9.4 million units each, maintaining its top position for nine consecutive years, representing over 60% of the world's total.
In this April, NEV surpassed 50% of total auto sales, underscoring the robust vitality of new quality productive forces. The new quality productive forces refer to advanced productivity that is freed from traditional economic models and old development paths, characterized by high technology, efficiency, and quality, with innovation being its hallmark.
In 2023, China's R&D investment reached $469.01 billion, accounting for 2.64% of its GDP, ranking the first place globally in R&D personnel, scientific publications, and patent applications.
China's Global Innovation Index ranking soared from 29th in 2011 to 12th in 2023. Notable innovations like manned spaceflight, domesticallyproduced large passenger aircraft, 5G, and solar panels have emerged in China, echoing Bill Gates' sentiment that China's effort to accelerate development through innovation will benefit China, other developing countries and the larger world.
New quality productive forces create new opportunities for developing countries including China and India. Developing new quality productive forces can contribute to modernization in developing countries.
As ancient civilizations, China and India have made brilliant achievements in agriculture, water engineering, astronomy, mathematics etc., pushing forward the progress of human civilization. However, we missed the opportunities of industrial transformation because of western colonialism during the first two industrial revolutions. Western countries, by contrast, have embarked on capital-centered modernization which led to widening wealth gap, ecological destruction and external expansion.
Today developing nations must leverage the ongoing technological and industrial revolution to achieve modernization through iterative upgrades and leapfrog development of productive force. Furthermore, developing new quality productive forces can address the aspirations of people in developing countries for a better life. With nearly 80% of the global population residing in developing countries, there's a collective desire for prosperity and progress. Chinese path to modernization emphasizes prosperity for all.
The new productive forces inject new energy into the Chinese modernization, dispelling the misconception that modernization equals westernization and bringing hope and alternatives to developing countries. Particularly, smart agriculture, online education, telemedicine and digital retail brought by the new quality productive forces enrich lives and promote sustainable, personalized environments. Moreover, fostering new quality productive forces can contribute to building a community with a shared future for mankind and fostering world peace and development.
While western countries tend to monopolize intellectual property, politicize scientific and technological issues and use them as weapons for ideological confrontation so as to safeguard their vested interests, China prioritizes openness, making its technological achievements benefit the world.
China has established scientific and technological cooperation relations with more than 160 countries and regions, and signed 114 inter-governmental agreements. More chapters are being added to the stories about cooperation and sharing. Chinese hybrid rice contributes to food selfsufficiency in Africa. The JakartaBandung high-speed railway built by China benefit the life of local people. China mobilized its satellites in rescue and relief work during the flood disaster in Venezuela. The football fields of the Qatar World Cup are kept green by the irrigation technologies specifically invented for desert areas by Chinese scientists.
New quality productive forces are also important engines for high-quality development under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative. China has launched 53 Belt and Road joint laboratories, supported more than 3,500 young scientists from different countries to conduct scientific research in China, trained more than 15,000 scientists from developing countries, built 8 transnational technology transfer platforms for developing countries, and set up a South-South Cooperation Center on Technology Transfer under the UN South-South framework.
Changes of the world, of our times and of history are unfolding today in ways like never before, but the general direction of human development and progress will not change, the logic of the tortuous progress of world history will not change, and the general trend of the international community sharing a common destiny will not change.
Developing countries should be full of confidence, seize the new opportunities of new quality productive forces, and work together in solidarity, jointly embrace a new era that belongs to the people of developing countries.
The writer is Consul General of the Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China in Mumbai
