China's high-quality development to present opportunities for enterprises

BEIJING -- China's ongoing drive to advance high-quality development will create new opportunities for enterprises, according to industry insiders who joined the fourth episode of the China Economic Roundtable, an all-media talk platform hosted by Xinhua News Agency.

"We started from scratch like many other small Chinese companies, but after reaching a certain size, we had to undergo a major transformation to extend the growth momentum," said You Hongtao, chairman of Chongqing Pharscin Pharmaceutical Co Ltd.

Today the company is listed on the A-share and has a market value of over 5 billion yuan ($703.75 million). "We benefited from China's supportive policies to spur innovation," You said.

China ranked 12th in the 2023 Global Innovation Index, and became the country with the largest number of top 100 sci-tech innovation clusters in the world for the first time, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization.

This year, the country has put developing new quality productive forces, featuring high-tech, high efficiency and high quality, on top of its agenda to further facilitate its high-quality development.

To leverage China's innovation momentum, both traditional and high-tech industries have been making strides.

"Traditional industries don't represent low-end industries and backward productive forces," said Dai Guanwen, head of the development department at the technical center of the HBIS Group Shisteel, a steel bar production enterprise, via a video shown during the roundtable episode.

"The key to new quality productive forces lies in the profound transformation and upgrade of industries," Dai stressed.

Referring to the HBIS Group Shisteel as an example, Dai said that the company has implemented a technique to eliminate high-emission processes in steel production, such as sintering and coking. It also uses clean energy sources to minimize carbon emissions.

Another video showcasing a production workshop of TCL China Star Optoelectronics Technology (TCL CSOT) reveals an automated and smart production line housed in a space equivalent to 12 football fields.

"The production line is able to carry out fully automated production 24/7. We could even turn off all the lights, and it will still carry out production in the dark," said Zhang Feng, senior vice-president of the TCL CSOT, via the video.

In the next step, Zhang said the company is planning to fully harness the advantages of green and digitalized manufacturing and continue strengthening the weak links of the industrial chain.

China has acknowledged the urgent need for enterprises to achieve breakthroughs in sci-tech innovations and has made arrangements to expedite the process.

Solid steps will be taken to accelerate the development of new quality productive forces, boost industrial innovation through technological innovation, speed up upgrading of traditional industries, and foster emerging industries, Zheng Shanjie, head of the National Development and Reform Commission, said at the China Development Forum 2024 in March.

"As long as we proceed on the innovation trajectory, I believe the made-in-China products will have a greater presence in overseas markets," You said.