Real economy, new industrialization mainstays for growth and prosperity: China Daily editorial

The blueprint for building a modern socialist country with Chinese characteristics in all respects over the next five years and beyond that was unveiled at the opening session of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China on Sunday stressed the need to advance new industrialization and move faster to boost China's strength in manufacturing, product quality, aerospace, transportation, cyberspace and digital development.

China has always accorded great importance to the development of the real economy, considering it to be the foundation of the economy and the very source of its national wealth creation. The real economy also serves as a guarantee for maintaining the competitiveness of China's economy globally.

It is thanks to the consistent emphasis it has placed on the real economy that China has become the world's largest producer of more than 220 types of industrial products including vehicles and computers. The world's second-largest economy is also the only country with all the industrial categories listed in the United Nations industrial classification.

But there will be no resting on its laurels. Now that China has reached a new development stage by transitioning from rapid growth to high-quality growth driven by innovation, efforts must be made to break bottlenecks and enhance independent innovation capability in the state-of-the-art technologies and high-end products such as microchips.

The sanctions the United States has imposed on Chinese high-tech enterprises in recent years have pointed to the painful fact that China is still lagging behind in basic research and some core technologies. The country must redouble its efforts to develop more independent and controllable industry and supply chains because only by holding key technologies in its own hands can China safeguard its national and economic security.

Therefore, it will support enterprises that use special and sophisticated technologies to produce novel and unique products, and move the manufacturing sector toward higher-end, smarter and greener production.

Yet development of the real economy does not mean less importance is placed on the development of the country's financial sector. Actually banks and other financial institutions are playing an increasingly important role in supporting the real economy. In answer to the call by the central authorities to increase loans to the manufacturing industry to boost economic growth, China's five largest State-owned banks on Sunday pledged to accelerate credit issuance and help maintain the stability and long-term development of the real economy.

Likewise, the finance sector will have a key role to play in helping to further integrate the digital economy with the real economy, via its support of the integrated development of strategic emerging industries and the nurturing of new growth drivers.

All this serves to inject confidence that the country will enjoy a bright economic future.