Eric's Insight: New productive forces to make Yunnan grow faster

China targets economic growth of around 5 percent in 2024, and an AI Plus initiative will be launched to boost new productive forces in the country, according to a government work report delivered at the opening of the second session of the 14th National People's Congress (NPC) on March 5.

Referring mostly to artificial intelligence (AI), digital economy and other innovation industries, the term new productive forces is now gaining popularity across China for it has emerged as a new concept for the central and local governments to plan and arrange their economic development.

At the 11th group study session of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee held on January 31, 2024, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, said that developing new productive forces is an endogenous requirement and a pivot for high-quality development.

As a province in urgent need of high-quality and leapfrog growth, Yunnan has made it a necessity over the years to develop digital economy that features smart manufacturing, e-commerce, smart tourism and wider AI applications, such as those at air ports, land ports and customs clearance.

In 2019, the Shanghai-based Wentai Technology set up an intelligent industrial park in Kunming, beginning to manufacture smart phones, PCs and tablets via automatic production lines. In the same year, the Tencent Global Digital Ecosystem Summit, also the Yunnan International Smart Tourism Conference, was held in Yunnan province.

Resting on the “Travel in Yunnan” app and other apps that allow visitors to buy Yunnan specialties and access services on line, Yunnan has been a Chinese champion in smart tourism and has made global tourists feel at home. As more smart equipments for facial recognition and luggage check-ups are set at Yunnan air ports and border gates, domestic and international visitors will feel it even easier to travel in Yunnan.

Yunnan produces bulk of green tea, coffee, fruit and vegetables, so integrating digital economy into agriculture and other real economic sectors is the right way to high-quality economic development. As of September 2023, the province has built up 39 demonstration bases for digital agriculture, and the digital economic income of the province has increased from 43.8 billion yuan in 2013 to 311 billion yuan in 2022, growing by over 20% annually.

With a national AI Plus initiative for boosting new productive forces around the corner, Yunnan will see more opportunities for digital economy and faster growth with higher quality. “As an educator, I’ll help further integrate vocational education into social production, cultivate high-quality technical talents that meet the needs of the new era, and provide strong talent support for making breakthroughs in new productive forces,” said Li Xiaoxuan, a Yunnan member of the second session of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

Writing by Wang Shixue; Proofreading by Zu Hongbing and Wang Huan; Photo source: Yunnan Daily