China’s Two Sessions to push ‘new productive forces’

China is expected to promote its plan to achieve “new productive forces” for 2024 in the coming “Two Sessions” meetings, which will begin in early March.

The Two Sessions – as the annual meetings of the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the National People’s Political Consultative Conference (NPPCC) are termed – will kick off on March 4 and 5, respectively.

Some Chinese economists expect the central government to set its gross domestic product (GDP) target at around 5% again for 2024 during the Two Sessions. But according to a Reuters poll of 58 economists, China’s economic growth may slow to 4.6% this year and 4.5% in 2025, given that the country is still suffering from its property and local debt crises.

Last September, Chinese Communist Party (CPC) General Secretary Xi Jinping raised the idea of building “new productive forces” for the first time.

Some US websites translated the program’s name as “new quality productivity” or “high quality development” but state media said the translation cannot fully describe China’s plan.

Xinhua said the term new productive forces refers to China’s plan to leverage science and technological innovation to generate new industries and speed up the country’s economic development.

“New productive forces mean advanced productivity that is freed from traditional economic growth mode and productivity development paths, features high technology, high efficiency and high quality and comes in line with the new development philosophy,” Xi said in a group study session of the politburo of the CPC Central Committee on February 1 this year.

He said sci-tech innovations should be applied to specific industries and industrial chains in a timely manner. He said efforts should be made to