[Thoroughly study and implement the spirit of the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee]
The Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee put forward the long-term goal of basically realizing socialist modernization in 2035, and took "basically realizing new industrialization, informationization, urbanization and agricultural modernization and building a modern economic system" as one of the goals. This is after the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China put forward that "we should stick to the road of new industrialization, informationization, urbanization and agricultural modernization with China characteristics, promote the deep integration of informationization and industrialization, the benign interaction between industrialization and urbanization, the coordination between urbanization and agricultural modernization, and promote the synchronous development of industrialization, informationization, urbanization and agricultural modernization", and the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China further emphasized "promoting the synchronous development of new industrialization, informationization, urbanization and agricultural modernization". It is the first time that the new industrialization, informationization, urbanization and the "new four modernizations" are basically realized, and it is also the first time that the Nineteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China clearly puts forward the time to build a modern economic system after making important arrangements for "implementing the new development concept and building a modern economic system". Realizing new industrialization, informationization, urbanization and agricultural modernization is the basic path to build a socialist modern country and an important strategic deployment to start a new journey of building socialist modernization in an all-round way.
Promoting the simultaneous realization of the "new four modernizations" and building a modern economic system is an inevitable requirement for basically realizing socialist modernization.
The process of economic modernization of a country is the process of interactive development of industrialization and urbanization. Industrialization provides economic foundation and growth impetus for urbanization, while urbanization provides factor agglomeration and broad demand market for industrialization. From the perspective of development economics, the process of an economy’s industrialization is, in essence, an economic growth process in which a series of important combinations of production factors in the national economy continuously change from low to high, thus promoting the increase of per capita income and the transformation of economic structure. With the industrialization process of economic growth, factors of production such as population and capital gradually gather from rural areas to cities and towns, and the scale of cities and towns gradually expands, so the urbanization process is also accelerating, which further promotes the industrialization process of economic structure transformation and per capita income increase. Nowadays, the world is in the information age, which is driven by the breakthrough development of information technology to a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation. Informatization has become an important feature of modernization, and the deep integration of informatization and industrialization has continuously changed the connotation of urbanization. The interactive development of industrialization and urbanization has also promoted agricultural modernization, and further promoted the agglomeration of agricultural population to cities and towns with the improvement of agricultural production efficiency. Therefore, the deep integration of informatization and industrialization, the benign interaction between industrialization and urbanization, and the coordination between urbanization and agricultural modernization are the inherent requirements and basic laws of the modernization process in today’s era. In other words, the modernization process of a country inevitably requires the simultaneous advancement of industrialization, informationization, urbanization and agricultural modernization.
Based on the understanding of this requirement and law, the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed to promote the synchronous development of new industrialization, informationization, urbanization and agricultural modernization. On the basis of making a major judgment that China’s economy has shifted from high-speed growth to high-quality development, the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China further emphasized the promotion and realization of the synchronous development of the "new four modernizations". Realizing the synchronous development of the "new four modernizations" is undoubtedly the essential requirement for entering the stage of high-quality development. High-quality economic development is a green and sustainable economic growth that meets the requirements of new development concepts, takes innovation as the first driving force, emphasizes endogenous coordination, pursues inclusive sharing. Compared with the traditional road of industrialization, the new industrialization is an economic modernization process, which is driven by informationization, promoted by industrialization, high in science and technology, good in economic benefits, low in resource consumption, less in environmental pollution, and gives full play to the advantages of human resources. Emphasizing the synchronous development of the "new four modernizations" fully embodies the requirements of the new development concept. On the one hand, taking scientific and technological innovation as the first driving force of modernization, it accurately grasps the innovative development direction of informationization and greening in the process of modernization in the world today; On the other hand, it clearly recognizes the problem of insufficient development imbalance in China’s modernization process, and better shows the inherent requirements of coordinated development between production factors, industries, industries and regions, towns and villages, and people and the environment. Therefore, actively promote the new industrialization strategy,Realizing the deep integration of informatization and industrialization, the benign interaction between industrialization and urbanization, and the coordination between urbanization and agricultural modernization are the basic requirements for building a modern economic system and achieving high-quality development.
According to the strategic deployment of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee, a new journey of building socialist modernization in an all-round way will be launched during the 14th Five-Year Plan period. From the connotation point of view, socialist modernization must be the modernization to realize the synchronous development of the "new four modernizations". At the same time, the economic system of a socialist modern country must be a modern economic system. The modern economic system includes a modern industrial system led by innovation and coordinated development, as well as a coordinated urban and rural regional development system. The formation of such an industrial system and regional development system is also the result of promoting new industrialization and urbanization. Therefore, the report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed to promote the simultaneous development of the "new four modernizations", and also proposed that building a modern economic system is the strategic goal of China’s development. On this basis, the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee further proposed that China will basically realize the "new four modernizations" and build a modern economic system by 2035.
To promote the simultaneous realization of the "new four modernizations" and build a modern economic system, efforts should be made to solve the problem of insufficient development imbalance.
Since the founding of New China, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has led the people of China to actively explore their own road to industrialization, and successively put forward interrelated and different development strategies such as industrialization, "four modernizations", new industrialization and "new four modernizations". Especially since the reform and opening up, under the guidance of Socialism with Chinese characteristics Theory, China has experienced a rapid process of industrialization, creating a miracle in the history of human industrialization. It took more than 40 years to make China, a populous country, move from the early stage of industrialization to the late stage of industrialization, and from poverty and weakness to a well-off society in an all-round way. Stepping into the new era of Socialism with Chinese characteristics, China’s economic development pays more attention to quality improvement, the level of informatization has been greatly improved, the quality of urbanization has been significantly improved, and agricultural modernization and the construction of new socialist countryside have achieved remarkable results. However, it should be noted that China’s modernization process, which is strategically oriented by "catching up with others", is a process of high-speed industrialization and rapid urbanization. Under the "high speed", there are still many problems of insufficient development imbalance, and the quality of development needs to be further improved. From the requirements of realizing the synchronous development of the "new four modernizations", at least the following aspects are highlighted.
First, the development of industrialization is still unbalanced, and the integration of industrialization and informatization is not sufficient. From the perspective of the motive force of industrialization, there is a problem of internal and external imbalance. For a long time, China’s low-cost, export-oriented high-speed industrialization strategy has caused an imbalance between internal and external power with high external dependence and urgent need for domestic demand. The problems such as increased economic security risks, lack of core technologies and heavy pressure on industrial structure upgrading have seriously restricted China’s economy from high-speed growth to high-quality development. Judging from the regional structure of industrialization development, the level of industrialization generally presents a gradient gap that gradually decreases in the eastern, central and western regions. Shanghai, Beijing, Jiangsu, Guangdong, Zhejiang and other places have entered the post-industrialization stage, and most other eastern provinces are also in the late stage of industrialization, while a considerable number of central and western provinces are basically in the middle stage of industrialization. From the industrial structure of industrialized development, the problem of low-level overcapacity in steel, petrochemical, building materials and other industries is prominent, high-end industries and high-end links in the value chain are underdeveloped, key equipment, core components and basic raw materials are heavily dependent on imported and foreign-funded enterprises, and the supply of high-quality, personalized, high-complexity and high value-added products is insufficient. From the perspective of resources and environment of industrialization development, the speed of industrialization and the carrying capacity of resources and environment are unbalanced, which makes it difficult for resources and environment to bear such a rapid industrialization process in a big country. From the relationship between industrialization and informatization, industrialization and informatization need to be further integrated, and the integration of Internet, big data, artificial intelligence and real economy still needs to be deepened.The informatization level and intelligent manufacturing capability of manufacturing industry need to be improved, and the situation that China’s industrial software level is backward and most industrial software mainly depends on the supply of foreign enterprises needs to be changed.
Second, the quality of new urbanization with people as the core needs to be improved, and the benign interactive development between urbanization and industrialization is not sufficient. Since the reform and opening up, especially since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China’s urbanization process has been significantly accelerated. By 2019, the urbanization rate of permanent residents in China was 60.6%, up 42.7 percentage points from 1978, 8.0 percentage points from 2012 and 4.5 percentage points from 2015. However, at the end of 2019, the urbanization rate of registered population in China was only 44.4%, which was still far from the urbanization rate of permanent residents. To improve the quality of urbanization with people as the core, firstly, improve the level of citizenization of agricultural transfer population, so that agricultural transfer population can enjoy equal civil rights; The second is to coordinate and promote the network construction of large, medium and small cities, and enhance the functions of urban industrial development, public services, employment absorption and population agglomeration. This requires the benign interactive development of urbanization and industrialization. In reality, the benign interaction between urbanization and industrialization in China is not sufficient, which is mainly manifested in the double dislocation of "no synchronization in time" and "no interaction in space" between industry and urban development to a certain extent: on the one hand, the supply of urban public services lags behind, which affects the normal pace of industrial transformation and upgrading; On the other hand, the effect of industrial agglomeration is not obvious, which restricts the improvement of the bearing function of cities and towns. If industrialization and urbanization can’t achieve benign interaction, it will cause the problem that industries are isolated due to lack of urban cohesion and cities are hollowed out due to lack of industrial support. The future,Efforts should be made to form a benign interaction model between urbanization and industrialization, which is to revitalize the city with production, promote production with the city, integrate production with the city, and coordinate urban and rural areas, so as to realize the scientific coordination between the growth of industrial factors and the regional spatial allocation. At the same time, we should actively promote the development of urban agglomerations and urban circles.
Third, agricultural modernization has become a short board that restricts China’s modernization process, and the coordinated development of agricultural modernization, industrialization and urbanization is not sufficient. At present, agricultural modernization is still a short board in the synchronous development of China’s "new four modernizations", and the level of mechanization, scientization, water conservancy and electrification of agriculture, as well as the level of industrialization, greening and informatization of agriculture need to be improved urgently. The level of agricultural development in China is not in harmony with the overall level of industrialization. Problems such as structural imbalance of agricultural supply, extensive agricultural development mode, agricultural non-point source pollution and quality and safety risks of agricultural products need to be solved by further upgrading the level of agricultural modernization. At the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee, it was put forward that "the strategy of rural revitalization should be implemented in an all-round way, agriculture should be supplemented by industry, and rural areas should be led by cities, so as to promote the formation of a new type of relationship between workers and peasants in urban and rural areas with mutual promotion, coordinated development and common prosperity, and accelerate the modernization of agriculture and rural areas". On the one hand, to improve the level of agricultural modernization, it is necessary not only to take industrialization development and modern technology as conditions, but also to rely on urbanization to promote the transfer of agricultural surplus labor. On the other hand, improving the level of agricultural modernization will fully release the agricultural labor force and further promote the development of industrialization and urbanization. In the future, we should further promote the coordinated development of agricultural modernization, industrialization and urbanization, promote the deep integration of the three industries and the process of urban-rural integration, and cultivate new kinetic energy for agricultural and rural development.Walk out of a road of agricultural modernization with China characteristics with high output efficiency, product safety, resource conservation and environmental friendliness.
Guided by the new development concept, we will actively promote the simultaneous realization of the "new four modernizations" and build a modern economic system.
Innovative development, coordinated development, green development, open development and shared development are the guiding ideology for China’s development and comprehensive modernization in the new era. As an important strategy and path for China’s modernization, promoting the simultaneous development of the "new four modernizations" must be guided by new development concepts, which is also an inevitable requirement for high-quality development. Facing the outstanding problem of insufficient development imbalance mentioned above, we must grasp three policy points to promote the synchronous development of the "new four modernizations" under the guidance of the new development concept.
First, adhere to innovation as the first driving force for development, promote the simultaneous development of the "new four modernizations" with scientific and technological innovation, and build a modern economic system driven by innovation. In order to realize modernization in China, we should seize the "bull’s nose" of scientific and technological innovation, which is the fundamental driving force for new industrialization, informationization, urbanization and agricultural modernization. Nowadays, scientific and technological innovation must firmly grasp the general direction of informatization, which is a typical technical feature of modernization. Since the first scientific and technological revolution, human society has generally experienced the early mechanical era, the steam engine and railway era, the electric power and steel era, the oil and automobile era, and the information and communication era. Since the second half of the 20th century, with the great breakthrough in computer chip processing technology, data storage technology, network communication technology and analytical computing technology, information technology, information products and information acquisition and processing methods with computers, Internet, mobile communication and big data as the main symbols have achieved exponential growth, and information technology has been gradually deeply integrated with manufacturing technology, which has promoted the innovation and diffusion of intelligent, digital and networked manufacturing technologies and formed a complex technical system of new industrial revolution. The "14th Five-Year Plan" period is a new round of accelerated expansion of scientific and technological and industrial revolution, which provides an opportunity for China to achieve modernization, and China’s "new four modernizations" level has already had a considerable foundation.A new round of scientific and technological and industrial revolution is coming. China is closer to the goal of building a socialist modern country in an all-round way and realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation than at any time in history. We must seize this once-in-a-lifetime historical opportunity through innovation.
The second is to grasp the general trend of integration and innovation, promote the simultaneous development of the "new four modernizations" with integration and innovation, and build a modern economic system with coordinated development of all elements. Promoting the synchronous development and realization of the "new four modernizations" reflects our understanding and grasp of the systematic characteristics of the modernization process. The realization of a country’s modernization is the result of the coordinated operation of various factors, industries and regions. Nowadays, the world’s industrial development presents a general trend of integration and innovation, which is not only manifested in the integration and innovation of three industries, but also in the integration and innovation of science and technology, technology and industry. The trend of industrial integration such as manufacturing informatization and manufacturing service is in the ascendant, and the deep integration of the three industries and the Internet has become the core source of efficiency and the important direction of technological innovation. In the process of integration and innovation, new industries, new formats and new models emerge one after another, which further strengthens the new kinetic energy of economic development. Grasping and promoting this development trend of integration and innovation is an important means to promote the synchronous development of the "new four modernizations". At present, the main factors restricting the development of China’s integration and innovation are the insufficient supply of common technologies and the lack of compound talents before competition. To this end, we should attach importance to and increase the innovation support for general and common technologies, attach importance to the cultivation of general and compound talents, and continue to increase investment in these areas.
Third, adhere to and improve the basic socialist economic system, open up the "blocking point" of the institutional mechanism of the domestic economic cycle, and create a good institutional environment for realizing the "new four modernizations" and building a modern economic system. This requires us to give full play to the decisive role of the market in resource allocation, better play the role of the government, and promote a better combination of effective markets and promising governments. Stimulate the vitality of various market players, unswervingly consolidate and develop the public sector of the economy, and unswervingly encourage, support and guide the development of the non-public sector of the economy; Build a high-standard market system, improve the basic system of the market system, adhere to equal access, fair supervision, openness and order, honesty and law-abiding, and form an efficient, standardized and fair domestic unified market; Improve macroeconomic governance, and improve the macroeconomic governance system with national development planning as the strategic orientation, modern fiscal and taxation financial system as the support, fiscal policy and monetary policy as the main means, employment, industry, investment, consumption, environmental protection, regional and other policies closely coordinated, optimized objectives, reasonable division of labor and efficient coordination; Accelerate the transformation of government functions and continuously optimize the international business environment of marketization and rule of law. For a country, there is no real economic modernization without a high level of marketization and a mature market economic system. Therefore, to realize the simultaneous development of the "new four modernizations" and build a modern economic system, it is necessary to speed up the improvement of the socialist market economic system.In particular, it is necessary to improve the property rights system and the market-oriented allocation mechanism of factors.
(Author: Huang Qunhui, director of the Institute of Economics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, researcher at the New Era Socialism with Chinese characteristics Thought Research Center, the supreme leader of China Academy of Social Sciences. This article is the phased achievement of the National Social Science Fund’s major project [〔20ZDA043〕])
