ANN/CHINA DAILY – China’s emphasis on fostering new quality productive forces is poised to inject significant momentum into its economy, creating rising growth opportunities for investors worldwide, said head of Digital Trade and Geopolitics at the World Economic Forum Simon Lacey.
“I think China is well positioned to benefit and also accelerate its development in areas like artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and industrial robots,” Lacey said.
He noted that recognising the importance of these technologies since the early 2000s, China has initiated reforms and bolstered the capacities of domestic firms and universities, establishing itself as a formidable player in the high-tech sector.
“Chinese firms have proven that they can really innovate at the margins incrementally to produce breakthrough technologies,” he added. Official data reflect the marked shift with exports of high-tech and green “new three” products experiencing substantial growth.
Exports of the “new three” – electric vehicles, lithiumion batteries and solar cells – registered a year-on-year increase of around 30 per cent in 2023, said the General Administration of Customs.
“China recognised the importance of these technologies decades ago and invested accordingly, and now it has clearly got a competitive advantage in the ‘new three’ sectors,” Lacey said. He believes that China is on track to achieve its goals of fostering new quality productive forces, especially in terms of cultivating cutting-edge technologies, adding that more efforts are needed to further expand high-standard opening-up and strengthen global cooperation.
“China just needs to keep on the path that it’s on and it’ll succeed. I think the most important thing is really that technical knowledge needs to be able to flow across borders, and you need to have this sort of open innovation model.”
Looking ahead, he said China and the United States (US) – the world’s two largest economies – should continue to cooperate and work together and rebuild trust in a number of areas, including green development.
“There are many areas where the US and China’s interests align, and they’re not in direct competition with one another. I think competition can be very healthy as long as it doesn’t lead to confrontation which can escalate,” he said.
“If we can get to a stage of healthy competition, there can be a lot of benefits for the rest of humanity as both countries are trying to compete with each other on a whole range of really important technologies.”
Lacey highlighted China’s importance to global firms with its ultra-large domestic market as well as its role as a centre for innovation and research.
