Theoretical connotation of high-quality economic development
The report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out that China’s economy has shifted from a high-speed growth stage to a high-quality development stage. This is a major judgment made by the CPC Central Committee with the Supreme Leader as the core according to the changes in the international and domestic environment, especially the changes in China’s development conditions and stages. The core of high-quality economic development is quality first and benefit first, which has profound theoretical connotation and great practical guiding significance.
Looking at the history of world economic development, the understanding of the law of economic development evolution and quality and efficiency is deepening with the development of social productive forces. From the early use of "efficiency" or "efficiency" to express the pursuit of the quality of economic development, to the economic growth theory in western economics that technological progress is the decisive factor to achieve sustainable economic development. With the deepening and development of theoretical research, the research on the quality of economic development has gradually expanded to institutional system, social equity, environmental protection and so on.
With regard to the current high-quality economic development in China, the central authorities stressed that high-quality development is a development that can well meet the people’s growing needs for a better life and embodies the new development concept. This thesis clarifies the purpose and means of high-quality development. Described by personal capital, high-quality economic development is an economic development that provides high-quality products and services to the whole society in a sustained and fair way with high efficiency and high efficiency, and it is a high-quality, high-efficiency and high-stability supply system in the specific economic form.
First, the quality of the supply system is high. The supply system includes three links: factor input, intermediate input and final output. The quality of the three links of the supply system is closely related. The high quality of the supply system means that the quality of all three links should be high. The high quality of factor input refers to the high quality of labor, capital, technology, energy resources, data, information and other factors put into the supply system, which is manifested in the high quality of labor, the high degree of automation, data and informatization of production materials, the high degree of greening of energy resources, the high technical level put into the production process, and the large scale, quality and value of information and data resources. The high quality of intermediate products means that the intermediate products in the production process, such as the quality and precision of parts, can meet the production needs well, which requires the continuous improvement of industrial division of labor and specialization, the continuous optimization and upgrading of industrial structure, and the formation of an effective collaborative and mutually supportive supply chain system. High quality of final output is an important connotation of high-quality development, that is, what we usually call high quality of products and services means that we can provide high-quality products and services to meet the diversified, personalized and escalating high-grade needs of consumers and better meet the growing needs of people for a better life. High-quality supply system is characterized by high quality and high performance of products and services at the level of specific output forms; At the industrial level, it is manifested as a rational and advanced industrial structure.
The second is the high efficiency of the supply system. From a static point of view, the high efficiency of the supply system is manifested in the unity of high technical efficiency and good economic benefits. Technical efficiency determines that under the given resource conditions, production possibility frontier, in the reality of scarce resources, promoting high-quality development inevitably requires the efficient and intensive development of the potential of existing resource elements, maximizing the input-output efficiency of various production factors, and achieving a fairly high level of capital efficiency and human resource efficiency. Economic benefits emphasize the rationality of resource allocation and combination, which represents the degree of allocation efficiency and reasonable distribution. High-quality development requires the rational allocation of resources between different uses, so that the marginal productivity of all kinds of factors can reach the highest, and marginal return of all kinds of factors can reach the highest. From a dynamic point of view, the high efficiency of the supply system is also manifested in the continuous improvement of efficiency, which has become the driving force for sustained and strong economic development, that is, economic growth has shifted from mainly relying on factor input to relying more on the improvement of total factor productivity, and the contribution of total factor productivity in the driving force of economic growth has been continuously improved. In this sense, the transformation process of economic growth momentum is also a process of promoting output efficiency, and power transformation and efficiency improvement are unified.
Third, the stability of the supply system is high. High-quality economic development should also be reflected in maintaining a relatively high level of stability in the supply system. From the time dimension, high stability is characterized by stable economic operation in a reasonable range in the short term and strong sustainability of output in the medium and long term. From the spatial dimension, high stability requires not only the health and stability of the economic system itself, but also the coordination of the economic system with society and environment. At the same time, economic development can provide development opportunities for all members of society, and the results will be shared by all people. In terms of resources and environment, rational utilization of natural resources and effective protection of ecological environment can bear long-term sustainable economic growth. In short, high stability of economic development means stable economic operation, controllable major risks, bearable resources and environment, and shared development achievements.
It should be emphasized that the high quality, efficiency and stability of the supply system are the core essence of high-quality economic development. Only when these characteristics are simultaneously possessed, and these characteristics are mutually supportive rather than conflicting, can they be called high-quality economic development.
High-quality development is a gradual and systematic development process
Summarizing the past development experience at home and abroad, high-quality development shows obvious stage characteristics. With the transformation of economic development stage, some aspects related to development quality, such as product and service quality, technical efficiency and economic benefit, economic growth power transformation, environmental quality, income distribution, etc., will change in trend at a certain time. It mainly shows that with the economic development, the quality of production factors such as capital and labor has been continuously improved, the quality of output has been continuously improved, the labor productivity has been continuously improved, and the industrial added value rate has been continuously improved. The driving force of economic development has shifted from factor-driven to efficiency-driven and innovation-driven, and the industrial structure has been continuously upgraded. What needs special attention is that these trend changes do not happen naturally, which are not only the embodiment of objective laws, but also the result of institutional policies.
By analyzing the changes of main quality indicators in different development stages, we can find that the transition to high-quality development presents the following typical characteristics: First, it is gradual. High-quality development is a process of constant change and slow evolution, and it is also a process from small accumulation to big change, from quantitative change to qualitative change. In this development process, factors, product and industrial quality, output efficiency, economic growth momentum, as well as the stability of economic growth and the sustainability of development have gradually changed. The improvement of output quality usually starts from the improvement of micro-factor quality, and then the driving force of economic growth shifts from factor-driven to efficiency-driven and innovation-driven. At the same time, the use efficiency of micro-factor and macro-total factor productivity are constantly improved, which lays the foundation for the improvement of output quality. The gradual development of high quality is also the result of the gradual improvement of demand level. The high quality of supply cannot exist in isolation from the fundamental purpose of meeting demand, and it needs to meet the low-level demand first and then change to meet the high-level demand. The second is systematic. High-quality development is an all-round and systematic process of change, and high-quality development in various fields is both a prerequisite and a result. In this development process, systematic changes have taken place at both ends of supply and demand, input and output, micro and macro fields. This includes both the optimization of industrial structure on the supply side and the upgrading and shifting of consumption on the demand side; It includes not only the improvement of labor, capital and other factors at the input end and the quality of intermediate inputs, but also the improvement of product quality and performance at the output end; Including the improvement of the use efficiency of micro-elements,It also includes the improvement of macro total factor productivity; It includes not only the transformation of short-term growth momentum, but also the fairer and more sustainable long-term development. What needs to be seen is that high-quality development is a spiral upward process, which is not only an objective and inevitable law that quantity accumulation will inevitably turn to quality improvement at a certain stage, but also the result of policy efforts to overcome difficulties and take the initiative. The two work together to better promote high-quality economic development.
An important path to promote high-quality economic development
Promoting quality change, efficiency change and power change of economic development is the key to realize high-quality economic development. Among them, quality change is the main body, efficiency change is the main line, and power change is the foundation. The three depend on each other and are an organic whole. Generally speaking, the core of promoting the three major changes is to improve the quality of factors and increase the total factor productivity, and the fundamental driving force lies in scientific and technological innovation and institutional innovation.
First, to improve the quality of the supply system as the main direction to promote quality change.
Improving the quality of the supply system is to promote the all-round reform of ideas, objectives, systems and work details in specific fields. It is a systematic project, and the quality reform should be promoted from three aspects: the quality of factor input, the quality of intermediate input and the quality of final output.
The first is to improve the quality of factor input. Factor input is the foundation, and its quality directly affects the quality of intermediate input and final output. From the perspective of labor factors, the higher the health status, years of education and skill level, the higher the output quality. From the perspective of capital factors, the output quality of different levels of factories, machinery and equipment will also be significantly different. From the perspective of technical factors, adopting higher-level science and technology and technology will also help to improve the quality of output. It can be said that the quality of factor input largely determines the quality of output and is the starting point for improving the quality of supply system. At the same time, recent studies show that the improvement of factor quality in developed countries has made an increasingly significant contribution to economic development, and the improvement of factor quality also has spillover effect on productivity improvement.
The second is to improve the input quality of intermediate products. The refinement and specialization of socialized division of labor constitute the industrial chain form of all walks of life. The quality of products in each chain will affect the quality of final output, and the input of intermediate products in key links can even directly determine whether the final output can be produced and the quality of production. China has been deeply embedded in the global industrial chain, but there are still many bottlenecks in the intermediate products of key links. Therefore, improving the input quality of intermediate products is the key to improve the quality of supply system, which requires building a mid-to high-end industrial structure and forming an effective industrial synergy supporting system.
The third is to improve the quality of final output. Starting from better meeting people’s growing needs for a better life, high quality products and services is the core and foothold of high quality supply system. The final product and service quality is related to the quality of residents’ consumption and the international competitiveness of a country’s products. We must speed up the improvement of China’s product and service quality by adjusting the quality standard system and promoting the quality brand action, so as to better promote the quality improvement of the supply system.
Second, promote efficiency change with improving total factor productivity as the core.
Improving output efficiency is the eternal theme of economics. The key to promoting efficiency change is to improve total factor productivity, so that economic growth depends more on total factor productivity. Total factor productivity is the "residual" contribution excluding the contribution of factor input. To improve the total factor productivity, we must vigorously promote the efficiency reform, constantly improve the technical efficiency and improve the efficiency of factor allocation.
The first is to improve technical efficiency. Technical efficiency corresponds to production possibility frontier, and improving technical efficiency means pushing production possibility frontier outward, which means the maximum output increase caused by the same scale of investment. From the essence of economic development, technical efficiency is the most important connotation of total factor productivity, and it should also occupy the most important position in total factor productivity, because it has broken through the original capacity boundary and reached a new and higher level. Promoting technical efficiency and continuously increasing the contribution of total factor productivity to economic growth is an important way to break the constraints of resources and environment and an important driving force to maintain long-term sustainable economic growth.
The second is to improve the efficiency of factor allocation. The efficiency of factor allocation affects the distance between actual output and production possibility frontier. If only the technical efficiency is improved and the factor allocation efficiency is low, the actual output will be far away from production possibility frontier, and the potential of technological progress to promote economic development will not be fully released. Under the dual economic structure, promoting the transfer of production factors from low-productivity departments to high-productivity departments and improving the allocation of factors have a significant effect on improving the total factor productivity. In addition, other factors that affect the efficiency of factor allocation include system and management. Good system and high-level management can also provide effective incentives, thus improving the supply and use efficiency of factors and improving the total factor productivity.
Third, focus on scientific and technological innovation and system reform to promote dynamic change.
From a deeper perspective, the driving force of economic development is to expand the input and output drive of existing resources and factors under the established technical level, which is an extension expansion on the original path. The other is to expand the scope of resources, improve the efficiency of resource elements and create new output drivers through technological and institutional innovation, which is a structural change of the economy. The change of the driving force of economic development, from relying mainly on the former to relying mainly on the latter, is an important manifestation of the economy turning to high-quality development.
First, scientific and technological innovation is the key driving force for economic development. Without technological innovation, with the increase of resource scarcity and the law of diminishing factor returns, economic development will come to a standstill. Through technological innovation, we can expand the scope of available resources and break the bottleneck of resources; Improve the use efficiency of resources and elements, and create more output with less input; It provides a technical basis for the configuration and combination of elements in a larger space; Create new diversified and high-quality products and services to better attract and meet the demand; Solve the negative effects of economic development on the environment and enhance the sustainability of economic development. It can be said that all aspects of the connotation of high-quality development are closely related to scientific and technological innovation, so scientific and technological innovation must be the first driving force for high-quality development.
Second, institutional innovation is also an important driving force to promote high-quality economic development. Institutional changes affect all dimensions of economic development. Reasonable institutional arrangements can continuously improve the quality and efficiency of economic development in a country or region, improve the total factor productivity and better promote high-quality economic development. For example, reasonable property right system and price system arrangement are helpful to promote the recombination of production factors, improve the efficiency of factor allocation, and are conducive to economic and efficient development; Effective market competition mechanism and intellectual property protection system can accelerate innovation and technological progress and promote economic innovation and development; Scientific management of resources and environment and system of ecological civilization can promote the improvement and sustainability of resources and environment; Wait. At present and in the future, we should make more efforts to deepen the reform of institutional mechanisms, so as to better stimulate the creativity and development vitality of the whole society and promote higher quality, more efficient, fairer and more sustainable economic development.
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