To tell engaging stories about Beijing and make its voice heard, the Translation and Interpretation Center of Beijing Foreign Affairs Office, in collaboration with China Academy for Public Policy Translation of Beijing International Studies University, has initiated a series titled “Understand Beijing: One Key Phrase a Day”. From this year’s Beijing Government Work Report, thirty seven trending policy buzzwords have been selected. Their elucidation,along with the official translation,is now being published to highlight the significant measures Beijing has undertaken in pursuit of high-quality development and the resultant achievements. Through this series, we aim to foster a deeper understanding of our city among foreign institutions and nationals in Beijing.

New quality productive forces

They refer to advanced productive forces emerging from revolutionary technological breakthroughs, innovative reallocation of production factors, and deep industrial transformation and upgrading. It is essentially about qualitative changes in labor force, means of production, objectives of labor and the combination thereof, as represented by a substantial increase in total factor productivity.

The concept was put forward by General Secretary Xi Jinping during his inspection tour to Heilongjiang Province in September 2023. He emphasized the necessity of integrating technological innovation resources to fuel the development of emerging strategic industries and those with a more futuristic vision, thereby accelerating the formation of new quality productive forces. Later, at the annual Central Economic Work Conference, he further highlighted the importance of promoting industrial innovation through technological innovation, and to foster new industries, new business models and growth drivers, in particular, by leveraging ground-breaking and cutting-edge technologies, as part of our drive to develop new quality productive forces.