Technology will be new growth engine

The Central Economic Work Conference, held at the end of 2020, concluded that independence in technology is fundamental to a country’s overall development. So long as a country focuses on innovation, its development will be more secure and reliable.

Technological independence must be central to national development, and innovation should be at the core of development in order to ensure security of the supply chain.

The new development paradigm is a strategic choice that will reshape China’s advantages in international cooperation and competition, and a secure supply chain should be a basis for that. For years, a certain power had unreasonably targeted Chinese high-tech enterprises, while the COVID-19 pandemic dealt a severe blow to domestic and global economies. All this underlines the importance of a secure, reliable supply chain.

That in turn requires China to have its own core technologies and put the priorities of development under control to ensure greater balance between supply and demand, raise the overall efficiency of the national economy, and promote the dual circulation development paradigm.

The first measure for this should be to strengthen the country’s strategic technological power. The State must play a greater role in promoting innovation, find the right direction of technological innovation and solve the problems that limit China’s development, to make the supply chain more secure. It should also mobilize national resources and build a number of fundamental research centers, let enterprises play a more active role in technological innovation, and support leading enterprises to form alliances with small and medium-sized enterprises to promote innovation.

The loopholes should be plugged and more research done on key technologies. Greater emphasis must be laid on object-oriented principles and united efforts made for developing technologies that China needs.

Human resources are important, as technology cannot be developed without cultivating talents. Suitable education policies are needed to cultivate highly skilled talents for the domestic industrial chain, while leading global talents and innovation teams can be introduced to ensure a steady supply of talents for the global industrial chains.