Interview: KPMG eyes broad prospects for China's new productive forces

BEIJING, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- China's move on developing new productive forces is injecting new vitality into promoting its high-quality growth, improving people's lives and facilitating international cooperation, Cai Wei from KPMG told Xinhua in a recent interview.

Cai, chief strategy officer of KPMG China Advisory, is impressed with the strong momentum and broad prospects of the country's new productive forces.

China's strategic emerging industries and future industries, which are the backbones for new productive forces, registered robust expansion over past years, Cai said, specially highlighting new energy, information technology and biology sectors.

Citing official data, he said, the share of strategic emerging industries in China's gross domestic product (GDP) rose to over 13 percent in 2022 from 7.6 percent in 2014. The country plans to raise that ratio to over 17 percent by 2025.

Hailing the strong performance in the fields of new energy vehicles (NEVs), robotic technology, new materials and the application of artificial intelligence, Cai said "China's new productive forces are with promising prospects" and "they are likely to see larger-scale expansion and innovation in the coming few years."

"The advancement of new productive forces signifies that China has made positive progress in replacing its old growth drivers with new ones," Cai added, the move lays a solid foundation for the high-quality development of the economy and plays an important role in improving people's lives.

The development will also offer more opportunities for foreign-invested enterprises, he said, giving the example of investors from Gulf countries. These investors consider China a promising investment destination, with a focus on leading companies in the fields of new energy, high technology, internet and biomedicine.

Cai also stressed the strengthening support in the capital market for enterprises' continuous research and development.

In January-August 2023, more than 90 percent of the 243 newly-listed firms on China's A-share market were engaged in strategic emerging industries, mainly new-generation information technology, high-end equipment manufacturing and new materials, according to KPMG research.

China has achieved great progress in terms of science and technology (sci-tech) innovations, Cai noted. For example, its tech-intensive and green "new three," namely electric passenger vehicles, solar batteries and lithium-ion batteries, reported a combined export volume of 1.06 trillion yuan (about 149.12 billion U.S. dollars) in 2023, jumping 29.9 percent year on year.

The country also ranked 12th on the World Intellectual Property Organization's Global Innovation Index 2023.

China has established sci-tech partnerships with more than 160 countries and regions in the world and participated in international innovation cooperation in multiple fields, such as technology, clean energy, artificial intelligence and biomedicine.

Cai believed the advancement of China's new productive forces will further strengthen the cooperation, especially in research and development as well as application and promotion of disruptive and cutting-edge technologies.

"The growth of new productive forces will promote deep integration of innovation, industrial, capital and talent chains and promote independent innovation and technological research and development in emerging and future industries," he added.

In the business sphere, the development of such forces will also facilitate foreign firms to work with local companies in depth, share resources, implement technological exchange and industrial upgrading, and improve their overall competitiveness, Cai said.