High-quality development, which entails innovative, coordinated, green and open 
development and development for everyone, was one of the buzzwords during 
China's just concluded Two Sessions, which mapped out the 2023 development 
priorities of the world's second-largest economy.

While attending a deliberation with his fellow National People's Congress (NPC) 
deputies from the delegation of Jiangsu Province during the session, President 
Xi Jinping stressed the importance of pursuing high-quality development, 
calling it the "first and foremost" task in China's modernization endeavor. The 
president pointed out that speeding up efforts to achieve greater self-reliance 
and strength in science and technology is the path the country must take to 
promote high-quality development.

China should work to achieve greater self-reliance and strength in science and 
technology, promote industrial transformation and upgrading, advance 
coordinated urban-rural and regional development, and foster green and 
low-carbon economic and social development, Xi reiterated when addressing the 
closing meeting of the first session of the 14th NPC on Monday.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang also pledged to focus effort on promoting high-quality 
development, noting China will enhance the capacity in science and technology 
as well as innovation, accelerate the building of a modern industrial system 
and advance transition toward green development.

China has made strides in recent years in boosting research and development 
spending, expanding clean energy production, and nurturing growth poles with 
regional development strategies, alongside progress in other areas to seek 
innovative, coordinated, green, open, and shared growth.

Sci-tech innovation props up China's high-quality development

As early as 2014, in an inspection tour of Jiangsu Province, Xi highlighted the 
role of innovation in economic development, saying that China must rely on 
innovation to achieve continuous and healthy economic development.

China fully implemented the innovation-driven development strategy and improved 
and upgraded the industrial structure over the past five years, according to 
the 2023 government work report.

China promoted development of the real economy through innovation and continued 
to foster new drivers of growth, said the report. The leading role of 
technological innovation was reinforced, it said, adding that China launched a 
number of major sci-tech innovation projects and stepped up efforts to secure 
breakthroughs in core technologies in key fields.

In the pursuit of high-quality development, China is also doubling down on 
technological innovation as a primary driver of growth. In 2022, China spent a 
record 3.09 trillion yuan ($449 billion) on research and development, a 
10.4-percent year-on-year increase that could be credited with the nation's 
accelerated efforts to enhance its innovation capability for more breakthroughs.

China saw its ranking in the Global Innovation Index jump from 34th in 2012 to 
11th last year, with the economy expanding at an average annual rate of 6.6 
percent between 2013 and 2021, contributing over 30 percent to world economic 
growth.

China makes sci-tech innovation global public goods

When reinforcing its strength in science and technology, China has also been 
committed to sharing its technology with worldwide partners and cooperating to 
improve global science and technology governance.

Boasting the world's longest and most extensively used high-speed rail network, 
China has been helping multiple countries construct and upgrade their rail 
transit with its advanced railway technology. World Bank Vice President for 
South Asia Martin Raiser said China's rail technology would bring urban 
development, tourism and regional economic growth.

Take the China-Laos Railway, a landmark Belt and Road project. Since operations 
began in December 2021, landlocked Laos has become a land-linked hub in 
Southeast Asia. The railway's Lao section has created more than 110,000 local 
jobs.

Through multilateral mechanisms such as the Belt and Road Initiative and the 
Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, China's sci-tech achievements have 
delivered new options in 5G communications, biomedicine and numerous realms, 
while also providing growth momentum.

China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) is another example of Chinese 
products, technology and services that have been utilized in more than 120 
countries and regions.

China has set up overseas BDS application and industrialization promotion 
centers, and strives to build solid foundations for the satellite navigation 
industry, according to the white paper titled "China's BeiDou Navigation 
Satellite System in the New Era", which was published in November 2022.

China is strengthening cooperation with regional organizations such as ASEAN, 
the African Union, the League of Arab States, and the Community of Latin 
American and Caribbean States, and releasing BDS-based solutions in the fields 
of smart cities, public security, precision agriculture, digital transport, and 
disaster prevention and mitigation, which are being piloted in Asia, Africa, 
and Latin America, according to the white paper.

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2023-03-13/Speeding-up-self-reliance-in-sci-tech-a-path-to-high-quality-development-1i8T09vixbi/index.html


SOURCE: CGTN