SCIO briefing on China's economic performance in Q1 2025

Nanfang Plus:

The CPC Central Committee attaches great importance to cultivating and developing new quality productive forces and unswervingly adheres to high-quality development. All localities and departments have actively introduced supporting measures. What new achievements have been made in developing new quality productive forces and advancing high-quality development since the beginning of this year? Thank you.

Sheng Laiyun:

High-quality development is the primary task of building China into a modern socialist country in all respects. Developing new quality productive forces is an intrinsic requirement and important focus for promoting high-quality development. The CPC Central Committee and the State Council attach great importance to promoting new quality productive forces and high-quality development. So do local governments. Regardless of changes in domestic and international circumstances, we remain unwavering in our focus on high-quality development. We are fully and faithfully implementing the new development philosophy on all fronts, and accelerating industrial upgrading, the building of a modernized industrial system, and the pace of innovation to cultivate and develop new quality productive forces and promote high-quality development. Based on our statistical data, five key indicators show that new quality productive forces accelerated in the first quarter of this year, while high-quality development continued to make progress.

First, we have continued to advance innovation and foster new quality productive forces. In the first quarter, local governments increased their support for innovation, especially as advanced technologies such as AI and quantum technology gained wider application, driving growth in high-tech industries. As we all know, the application of technological advances like DeepSeek and Unitree humanoid robots during the Spring Festival not only demonstrated China's technological innovation strength but also boosted market confidence. In the first quarter, the value added of the high-tech manufacturing industry above designated size increased 9.7% year on year. The value added of information transmission, software and IT services grew 10.3%. These two figures demonstrate that innovation momentum is strengthening.

Second, coordinated development continues to improve. Both the industrial structure and demand structure show encouraging improvements. From an industrial structure perspective, the coordinated development of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries has jointly driven further optimization of the overall economic structure. The proportion of value added from equipment manufacturing and high-tech manufacturing within industries above designated size has continued to increase. In the first quarter, equipment manufacturing reached 33.7% of the total, with an increase of 1.9 percentage points year on year. High-tech manufacturing represented 15.7%, up 0.5 percentage point. This clearly demonstrates the industrial transformation trend toward high-end, intelligent and green development. In terms of the demand structure, while our current investment growth rate remains moderate, the proportion of investment flowing into high-tech industries is increasing. In the first quarter, investment in high-tech industries increased 6.5% year on year, accounting for 10.3% of total investment, an increase of 0.3 percentage point.

Third, we have continued to advance high-level opening up. As I mentioned earlier, we're actively building a new foreign trade pattern. We've accelerated market diversification, particularly by strengthening economic and trade exchanges with Belt and Road partner countries. The transformation of our trade pattern is gaining momentum.

Fourth, we have taken solid steps to advance the green transition and green development. The new energy industry, represented by new energy vehicles, lithium batteries, and photovoltaics, has continued to maintain rapid growth. In the first quarter, the proportion of non-fossil energy in total energy consumption increased 1.5 percentage points compared with the same period last year, making the foundation for high-quality and green development even stronger.

Fifth, we continue to make new progress in improving people's well-being and achieving secure development. Employment remains generally stable, with residents' income growth basically keeping pace with economic growth. The government places high priority on increasing spending for people's well-being, with the proportion of such expenditures continuing to rise. The country's energy supply has also been effectively secured. This year has seen steady progress in crude oil and raw coal production. Meanwhile, policies to defuse risks related to local debt, small- and medium-sized financial institutions, and the real estate sector have had a positive effect, strengthening secure development.

Based on these five aspects, we continue to advance and make new progress in high-quality development. Of course, this is also a process of transitioning from quantitative to qualitative changes. We need to sustain our efforts. Regardless of changing international circumstances, we must strengthen confidence, maintain resolve, and unswervingly promote high-quality development. We'll use the certainty of China's high-quality development to cope with the uncertainty of external changes. Thank you.