Following China's tone-setting Central Economic Work Conference earlier this month, multiple government authorities have convened meetings, making specific arrangements to anchor the growth momentum of the Chinese economy in 2024.
Boosting sci-tech innovation and expanding domestic demand are among the key missions listed by those departments, revealing the country's direction in its policymaking.
The Central Economic Work Conference has put promoting technological innovation to support the development of a modern industrial system at the top of the economic agenda for the next year.
Under the guidance of the conference, a recent meeting on national industrial and information-technology work specified major goals, including improving the sci-tech innovation capability of industries, speeding up the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, and cementing the leading position of advantageous industries.
Fiscal and financial departments have pledged to prop up the country's sci-tech innovation drive accordingly.
A national fiscal work conference underscored the need to ensure the capital demand of major sci-tech projects and deepen reforms on the allocation and usage of fiscal sci-tech funds, while the National Financial Regulatory Administration vowed to facilitate the development of new productive forces and the building of a modern industrial system.
According to Liang Jing, a research fellow at the Bank of China Research Institute, China is at a pivotal stage of transitioning from traditional factors to technology, data and other new productive factors, which entails the improvement of total-factor productivity through strengthening independence in research and development ability.
"The rapid formation of new productive forces, prompted by sci-tech innovation, will become a vital driving force in China's economic growth and high-quality industrial development," Liang said.
