The key to ensuring the supply chain of the industry chain is to rely on innovation to improve competitiveness

——Interview with Liu Wei, President of Renmin University of China

[Authoritative interview]

  "Six Stability" and "Six Guarantees" are the focus and goal of this year's economic work. The stability of the supply chain of the industrial chain is a very important link. It is a new development in which the domestic and international dual cycles are the mainstay and the domestic and international dual cycles promote each other. The pattern is an organic part of the big development logic." Liu Wei, president of Renmin University of China, said in an interview with our reporter in the Mingde Building on the campus of the People’s University of China recently that the issue of the industrial chain supply chain cannot be regarded as a technical issue in isolation. It is actually a series of problems arising in the new pattern of China's economic development, including cyclical and non-cyclical factors.

The key to ensuring the supply chain of the industrial chain is to rely on innovation to improve competitiveness.

Constant chain is the bottom line

Reporter: What role does the industrial supply chain play?

How to understand the supply chain problem of the industrial chain?

Liu Wei:

"Six Stability" and "Six Guarantees" are actually an indispensable part of China's transformation of development mode, deepening of supply-side structural reforms, building a modern economic system, and reshaping the advantages of economic development.

Ensuring the stability of the industrial chain and supply chain is an important part of the "six guarantees".

  The problem of the industrial chain supply chain is not accidental. In the final analysis, it is a problem of the smooth circulation of the national economy, and the smooth circulation includes two aspects: vertical and horizontal.

"Vertical" means that all links of the industry, as well as the various fields of production, distribution, exchange, and consumption in the national economy, must be well connected and smooth; "horizontal" means that between different regions, between different industries, supply and Between demand, it must be smooth.

It is "equilibrium" in economics, so the core problem of the industrial supply chain is actually the problem of promoting economic equilibrium.

  At present, various cyclical factors and developmental factors are entangled, domestic factors and international factors are entangled, and public health events such as the new crown pneumonia epidemic are entangled with changing factors such as the reverse trend of international globalization.

In this case, we must adhere to the bottom line thinking to ensure that the supply chain of the industrial chain cannot be interrupted or blocked, and the entire national economic cycle cannot be stopped or blocked. It must be unblocked, that is, supply and demand, between regions and regions, The bottom line is that industries and industries, between various links in the national economy, and different links in the industrial chain must be effectively connected and linked. They must not be rigid, and they must withstand the impact of various crises. This is the bottom line.

  If regions are blocked from each other, there are "fences" between industries, and the relationship between the government and the market is unclear, so that even a unified market cannot be achieved, and the domestic cycle cannot be smooth, which also means that the industrial chain supply chain is Cracked.

Therefore, ensuring the stability of the supply chain of the industrial chain is not only for responding to crises, but also for long-term development, but also for comprehensively deepening reforms, increasing the level of openness, and increasing the level of marketization and rule of law.

From big to strong

Reporter: How do you view the current development situation of my country's industrial supply chain?

Liu Wei:

China's industrial supply chain has two characteristics: one is "big" and the other is "full".

For example, according to World Bank data, in 2010, the added value of my country's manufacturing industry surpassed that of the United States, and my country became the largest manufacturing country, marking that since the mid-19th century, after a century and a half, my country has regained its status as the world's largest manufacturing country. ; In 2018, my country’s manufacturing value added accounted for more than 28% of the world’s share, becoming an important engine driving global industrial growth.

At present, my country has 41 industrial categories, 207 industrial medium categories, and 666 industrial sub-categories, forming an independent and complete modern industrial system. It is the only country in the world that has all the industrial categories in the United Nations Industrial Classification.

This is related to our major country's economy, long-term development strategy and policy.

  But now my country’s industrial supply chain has a problem, that is, it is large but not strong. We are indeed restricted by others in some key areas, key links, and key technologies.

It is precisely because my country has these shortcomings and weaknesses that in the current world division of labor, the high end of the value chain is often occupied by other countries, while my country is at the middle and low end of the value chain. Most of what we can get is some Hard money, material money, etc.

  Through our efforts, we have risen from the low-end of the world's industrial chain to the high-end, even the cutting edge of some fields, and realize the transformation from large to strong. This may be the main change of my country's industrial chain supply chain in the future.

This is what we expect, and there is only this way.

If the industry chain is to be truly competitive and is no longer restricted by others, the key lies in technology leadership so that fair trade can be carried out.

This is of course difficult. Let’s not say that countries such as the United States will hinder us. Only the cultivation of innovative talents involves education, human capital investment, and institutional reforms and innovations. We have a long way to go to meet this requirement. , Adjust slowly.

Reporter: What opportunities and challenges are facing the development of my country's industrial supply chain?

Liu Wei: At

present and for a period in the future, China's development is still in a period of strategic opportunities, but there are new developments and changes in opportunities and challenges.

my country has entered a stage of high-quality development, and development has many advantages and conditions.

At the same time, the new problems and challenges that my country encounters in the new stage of modernization are more complex and riskier than before.

  China's economic development has been severely challenged.

Overcoming the middle-income trap depends on the upgrading of the industrial structure and the transformation of development methods. The upgrading of the industrial structure depends to a large extent on innovation and the dividends of globalization. However, innovation is uncertain, and uncertainty is risky. The dividends of globalization are also very uncertain, especially in the current international situation, the dividends of globalization have actually been gradually weakening for us.

  The world today is undergoing major changes unseen in a century.

The global pandemic of the new crown pneumonia epidemic has accelerated this big change. Protectionism and unilateralism have risen, the world economy is down, and the global industrial chain supply chain is facing impact due to non-economic factors.

With the rise of China, the West, led by the United States, has taken strategic obstruction, interference, and even suppression against us, and deepened it step by step, from trade to industry, to the main body of enterprises, to talent competition, human capital, and various fields, especially The fields of scientific research and education have brought a series of difficulties, challenges and uncertainties to my country's economic growth, and have caused a huge impact on the stability of my country's industrial supply chain.

  Faced with these shocks and challenges, we must do our own thing, build a modern industrial system and a modern economic system, strengthen the economy, transform the development mode, ensure the stability of the industrial chain and supply chain, and make our economy more Competitive and more attractive.

Innovation and improvement

Reporter: In the future, how should my country ensure the stability of the industrial chain and supply chain, and improve the advanced level of the industrial base and the modernization of the industrial chain?

Liu Wei: To

ensure the stability of the industrial chain supply chain, it is not only necessary to improve the resistance of the industrial chain supply chain on the existing basis, so that it can withstand the impact of the crisis, but more importantly, to improve the level of the industrial chain supply chain through innovation.

As the saying goes, "Going against the current, you will retreat if you don't advance."

If you want to keep the chain, you must upgrade the level. The core of the level is to improve competitiveness, that is, to increase the height of the industrial structure and carry out structural upgrades.

If the height of the industrial structure cannot be improved, the level and quality of the connection between supply and demand cannot be improved, and the chain will eventually be broken.

  From a micro perspective, whether the industrial chain can operate in the market depends on whether the company has market competitiveness.

If all links of an enterprise are not efficient, there may be both market risks and other uncertain risks, leading to many breakpoints in the industrial chain.

Only when the industrial structure is rationalized, the industrial organization is rationalized, and the market competitiveness is improved, can the industrial chain be vigorous in market competition and can be recycled.

On this basis, the government has taken effective measures to correctly handle the relationship between the government and the market from the macro level, from the level of industrial structure, from the level of leading the direction of future industrial development, and from the aspects of clearing the barriers of market competition. Combining the forces of the two aspects to better play the role of the market can truly smooth the supply chain of the industrial chain.

  From a global perspective, where we are constrained by others and "stuck" by others, we are not competitive or cannot compete with other countries.

If controlled by others for a long time, the so-called cycle is a "bubble cycle"; the industrial cycle based on the industrial support of others is a "virtual cycle".

Therefore, when entering a new stage of development, we must base ourselves on the domestic cycle and rely on innovation to achieve new breakthroughs.

  There are two main aspects to innovation.

The first is technological innovation. It is necessary to vigorously improve independent innovation capabilities, break through key core technologies as soon as possible, rely on China's super-large-scale market and complete industrial system to create unique advantages that are conducive to the rapid large-scale application and iterative upgrade of new technologies, and accelerate scientific and technological achievements to real productivity Transform, improve the level of the industrial chain, and maintain the safety of the industrial chain; the second is institutional innovation. It is necessary to improve the completeness of market mechanisms, improve the relationship between the government and the market, further optimize the market environment and investment environment, maintain market order, and truly form a unified and open market.

(Reporter Liu Kun)