New quality productive forces reshaping China's economic landscape

China has made significant progress in economic transformation toward emerging and future industries as well new business models by developing new quality productive forces.

A key driver for the development of new quality productive forces is sci-tech innovation. In the first 10 months of 2024, investment in high-tech industries in China increased by 9.4 percent year on year, significantly boosting the development of emerging industries, particularly in the humanoid robot sector.

"Walker X, launched in 2021, is our fourth-generation robot, which added enhanced artificial intelligence interaction capabilities, enabling it to perform tasks such as picking up a bottle, playing chess, and giving massages," said Gao Weifeng, a senior technical engineer of UBTech Robotics, a robot manufacturer based in Shenzhen City of south China's Guangdong Province.

"I believe that intelligent manufacturing, particularly in the automotive sector, may emerge as the first significant application area for humanoid robots. To support this, we launched the Walk S series in 2023, focusing on applications in industrial manufacturing," said Qin Wenlong, another senior engineer of UBTech.

The advancement of AI technology has created huge opportunities for advanced manufacturing.

In Ningde City of east China's Fujian Province, CATL, the world's largest power battery manufacturer, has established the first "lighthouse factory" in the lithium-ion battery industry.

The facility features a highly intelligent and automated production line, laying a solid foundation for leading innovation in green energy sectors.

"Our cell-to-pack technology eliminates the module structure by directly assembling the battery with the cell. This innovation improves the energy density of the battery. In recent years, we have seen notable acceleration in our development of energy storage industry. Like now, we see these energy storage cabinets which currently represent the cutting edge technology in the field. These cabinets have the capability to replace fixed fossil energy sources," said Ma Lin, deputy director of the Intelligent Manufacturing Department of CATL.

The rapid development of science and technology has revitalized traditional industries. As the world's largest logistics market, with over 70 percent of freight transport occurring on roads, China is leveraging technological innovations like autonomous driving to enhance line-haul logistics. The progress is also contributing to the formation of new supply chain patterns.

"As the average age of drivers increases, autonomous driving can help car companies solve part of the driver shortage. This is helpful to the sustainable development of the logistics industry, which requires a combination of extensive technology and data. We get rich data from China's complex logistics environment and diverse operational scenarios, and from simulation as well. In this perspective, China is at a relatively leading position in terms of intelligent driving technology," said Liu Yuhang, director of the China Logistics Information Center.

Intelligent technologies have been applied in agriculture to help farmers monitor field conditions, reduce costs of fertilizers and pesticides, and increase yields.

"Now, with this smart basement, we can monitor the disease, insect and pests and growth situation remotely," said Wang Jun, a farmer in Lishu County of northeast China's Jilin Province.

"This part of the base station is to monitor the insect situation, and there are parts to monitor the wind, humidity and so on. On the monitoring platform you can see the situation of any parts of the land. You can click on whose land this belongs to, what situation is convenient for us to operate," said Han Fengxiang, head of the Fenghuangshan Rural Cooperative.

With high technology, efficiency and quality, future industries are flourishing in China. According to official data, the scale of China's commercial space market is projected to exceed 2.3 trillion yuan (about 315 billion U.S. dollars) in 2024.

In 2023, the low-altitude economy in China reached over 505 billion yuan (about 69.19 billion U.S. dollars), marking a growth rate of 34 percent. The market is expected to expand to 1.5 trillion yuan (about 206 billion U.S. dollars) by 2025.

"About four years ago, we started thinking about adjacency for Aviage. What if we can make that avionics suite smaller, cheaper, lighter and even better? And sure enough, now, the Chinese government is really promoting this thing called the low-altitude economy. And it's a perfect fit for our eVTOL market," said George Chang, president and CEO of Aviage Systems, a joint venture between General Electric Company (GE) and Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC).

New quality productive forces reshaping China's economic landscape

Former officials and analysts in Egypt have hailed the significant message in Chinese President Xi Jinping's New Year speech and highlighted how China's development impacts not only itself, but the whole world.

In the address broadcast on New Year's Eve on Tuesday, Xi stressed the importance of high-quality development and safeguarding people's livelihoods, and underscored China's vision to promote global governance reform and deepen solidarity and cooperation among the Global South.

Xi also said China's economy has rebounded and is on an upward trajectory, while noting the need to transform old growth drivers into new ones.

"The New Year's speech by the Chinese President tackled many important issues, among which is the Chinese economic growth during 2024. China aims at increasing that growth rate in the new year, this is a very important directive that will affect China's public policy in the coming period," said Mohamed Amin, editor-in-chief of the Cairo-based political magazine October.

Meanwhile, Ali el-Hefny, a former Egyptian ambassador to China who is now vice president of the Egypt-China Friendship Association, highlighted how China has set an example for the developing world, and pointed to its strong cooperation with Africa, including in the development of many major infrastructure projects. "China also contributes a lot as far as its participation as one of the major countries worldwide in peacekeeping efforts in the continent of Africa. So in fact, the internal policies in China are a wonderful example for us in Africa, for our economies, for our countries, for our governments, and for the countries in the Global South," he said.

"With the BRICS and other forums, we need the role and contribution of China. China renders a lot to African as a continent and the African countries, and the African people. I've seen it with the infrastructure that was provided with the Chinese expertise and accumulated experience. Wherever you go in Africa, you will find paved roads, you will find ports where the capacity has been uplifted, [such as] the airports," he said.

Last September, Beijing hosted the summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), bringing together the leaders of over 50 African countries in the Chinese capital, and el-Hefny noted that the cooperation platform will this year mark a milestone anniversary.

"[I would like to] draw attention to the fact that we are celebrating this year a quarter of a century, 25 years, since the establishment in the year 2000 of the African-Chinese cooperation forum. It has lasted for 25 years. We would like to see [the continuation of] such a forum that was very important for the African continent, and it was also important for China," he said.

In the view of Gamal Bayoumi, a former assistant foreign minister, China is playing a very active role in terms of international diplomacy, especially in the United Nations' system.

"As we well know, China is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and it has the right to veto for any decision which we do not like. [But] China has never used the veto in a negative way," he said.

Egyptians hail Xi's New Year speech, highlighting China's global impact