“XinChuang“（信创） in China's 2024 Report on the Work of the Government
The 2024 Government Work Report of China mentions "science and technology" 26 times, setting a decade-high record and highlighting the deep conviction that "science and technology are the bedrock of national strength, and innovation is the essence of national advancement." It's worth noting that much of the content is related to “Xin Chuang” （信创）, summarizing the achievements of the past year and the key focuses for work in 2024.
Highlights of Science and Technology Innovation/Information Technology Application Innovation Industry
2023 Work Review section mentioned:
Science and technology innovations achieve breakthroughs.
Science and technology innovations achieve breakthroughs. The construction of the national laboratory system has been vigorously promoted. Critical technology research and development has been fruitful, and the development of high-end equipment such as aero engines, gas turbines, and fourth-generation nuclear power units has made great progress, while innovations in cutting-edge fields such as artificial intelligence and quantum technology have continued to emerge. The turnover of technology contracts increased by 28.6%. Innovation-driven development capacity continued to improve.
The foundation for security development has been consolidated and strengthened. The ability of the supply chain of important industrial chains to be autonomous and controllable has been enhanced.
The overall requirements and policy orientation of economic and social development in 2024 are mentioned:
The government should promote high-level science and technology self-reliance.
The government should implement structural tax and fee reduction policies, focusing on supporting science and technology innovation and the development of the manufacturing industry.
The 2024 government tasks are mentioned:
(a) vigorously promote the construction of modernized industrial systems and accelerate the development of new quality productivity(新质生产力).
Give full play to the leading role of innovation, promote industrial innovation with science and technology innovation, accelerate new industrialization, improve total factor productivity, continuously shape new momentum and new advantages for development, and promote a new leap in social productivity.
(b) deeply implement the strategy of developing the country through science and education; strengthen the basic support for high-quality development.
Accelerate the promotion of high-level science and technology self-reliance. Give full play to the advantages of the new national system to comprehensively enhance independent innovation capability. Strengthen the systematic layout of basic research, provide long-term and stable support for several innovation bases, advantageous teams, and key directions; enhance the capacity for original innovation; deploy and implement many major science and technology projects targeting the country's major strategic needs and industrial development. Integrate national strategic science and technology forces and social innovation resources; promote collaborative research on critical technologies; and strengthen research on subversive and frontier technologies.
Improve the operation and management mechanism of national laboratories; give play to the leading role of international and regional science and technology innovation centers. Accelerate the systematic layout of major science and technology infrastructures; promote the construction of common technology platforms and pilot-scale(中试) experiment platforms. Strengthen the status of enterprises as the main body of science and technology innovation; incentivize enterprises to increase investment in innovation; deepen the combination of industry, academia, research, and application; support powerful enterprises to lead major research tasks to strengthen the research, development, and application of science and technology for people's livelihoods, such as health and elderly care. We will accelerate the formation of a basic system to support comprehensive innovation, deepen the reform of science and technology evaluation, science and technology awards, science research projects, and fund management system; and improve the mechanism of the technology-based bounty system. Strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights, and formulate policies and initiatives to promote the transformation of science and technology achievements.
(c) Better integrate development and security; effectively prevent and resolve risks in key areas.
Strengthen security capacity building in key areas; improve the food production, storage, and processing system to strengthen the foundation of food security in all aspects; promote the construction of the national water network; strengthen the security of energy resources; increase the exploration and development of oil and gas and strategic mineral resources; accelerate the construction of a large national reserve system; strengthen the construction of key reserve facilities; improve network, data, and other security capabilities; effectively maintain the security and stability of the industrial and supply chains; support the smooth circulation of the national economy.
(d) Persevere in the work of issues of agriculture, farmer, and rural area; push forward the comprehensive revitalization of the countryside.
Increase the revitalization of the seed industry, agricultural critical technology research efforts; implement agricultural machinery and equipment to make up for the shortcomings of the action.
(e) Accelerate the construction of digital government; promote "efficiently do a thing" (高效办成一件事) as the traction; improve government services.
Interpretation of the key point of Science and Technology Innovation/Information Innovation in the Report on the Work of the Government
Point 1: This year's Report on the Work of the Government lists "vigorously promote the construction of a modernized industrial system; accelerate the development of new quality productivity" as the first task for the first time.
The first of the ten tasks of the government work in 2024 is to "vigorously promote the construction of a modernized industrial system; accelerate the development of new quality productivity".
In the past government work reports, except for the first task in 2017 and 2018 related to supply-side structural reform, most of the first tasks were related to macroeconomic policies such as "stabilizing the economy and maintaining operation". This year's government work report is the first time to "build a modernized industrial system development, develop new quality productivity" as the first task.
In addition, on February 7, 2024, General Secretary of CCP Xi Jinping emphasized in the eleventh collective study of the Politburo of the Central Committee(中央政治局第十一次集体学习) that it is necessary to lay out the industrial chain around the development of the new quality of productive forces; improve the resilience of the industrial chain supply chain and the level of security; and ensure that the industrial system is autonomous, controllable, safe and reliable. From this, we can see the increased attention and emphasis on industrial policy in 2024.
There are three main points to promote the work in 2024:
Promote the optimization and upgrading of the industrial chain supply chain (autonomous and controllable capacity enhancement)
Actively cultivate emerging and future industries (ultra-large-scale new intelligent computing centers, GPU chips, next-generation smart terminals, next-generation operating systems, etc.)
Further promote the innovative development of the digital economy
Point 2: The most obvious change in this year's Report on the Work of the Government is that science and technology content has increased, while the total amount of emphasis is on the "protracted war".
Compared with last December's Central Economic Work Conference(中央经济工作会议), today's government work report clearly requires "grasping the main contradiction", undoubtedly the "new quality of productive forces" (that is, science and technology). In addition to the words "vigorous" and "accelerate", the "new quality of productive forces" further promotes "invigorating China through science and education"(“科教兴国”) (the talent factor) in second place. Aggregate policy, represented by finance, puts more emphasis on sustained strength rather than strong stimulus in the short term.
From the ordering of the top ten tasks in the 2024 government work, we can see that this year's Report on the Work of the Government has made very significant structural adjustments to specific tasks:
First of all, new quality productivity is listed as the first task for the first time.
Second, the strategy of invigorating China through science and education is listed as a separate item for the first time. In the past Report on the Work of the Government, education-related content was placed in the "livelihood" tasks. This is the first time the "strategy of invigorating China through science and education" is a separate task and is listed in the second item. It is worth noting that much of it mentions accelerating the promotion of high-level science and technology self-reliance and self-improvement. The government will give full play to the advantages of the new national system and comprehensively enhance the ability to innovate independently. The combination of the strategy of invigorating China through science and education and the self-reliance of science and technology may mean a new action in the field of education and innovation in 2024.
Point 3: The content of the digital economy represented by artificial intelligence has increased significantly, and digital infrastructure and computing power systems may become an important grip.
Promoting the development of the digital economy represented by artificial intelligence is also an essential part of this report. This part is placed in the task of "vigorously promote the construction of a modernized industrial system; accelerate the development of new quality productivity". Combined with the "new quality productivity", it is essentially advanced productivity, innovation-led, and can realize a significant increase in total factor productivity. Some Analysts believe that generative AI is expected to bring about a leap in social productivity, marking the opening of “the fourth industrial revolution", and the cornerstone of industrial development is abundant, low-cost computing power supply. From this point of view, China's vigorous development of domestic computing power is imperative.
The main contents of "digital economy" and "artificial intelligence" are:
Promote digital industrialization and industrial digitization; promote the deep integration of digital technology and the real economy.
Deepen the research and development applications of big data and artificial intelligence; carry out the "AI+" action; create internationally competitive digital industry clusters.
Implement actions for the digital transformation of the manufacturing industry; accelerate the application of industrial Internet on a large scale.
Carry out in-depth special actions to digitally empower small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
Support platform enterprises to make their presence felt in promoting innovation, increasing employment, and international competition.
Improve the data foundation system and vigorously promote the development, opening, and circulation of data.
Build digital infrastructure moderately ahead of schedule; accelerate the formation of a national integrated computing power system.