The Suzhou Industrial Park in Jiangsu Province Photo: CFP

A future industry refers to a strategic, high-growth, forerunner industrial cluster based on cutting-edge technologies and their new products and new business forms that drive substantial transformations. Future industries are manifestations of a country or region’s level of socioeconomic development and overall competitiveness. They represent a crucial area of focus as China implements the innovation-driven development strategy. 

Future direction

Developing future industries leads economic innovation and development. To develop future industries, it is necessary to leverage the strengths of many market entities, integrate regional resources, improve the level of industrial agglomeration, and ultimately form a strong innovation network, drive sustainable innovation, and promote the industry to keep up with changing technological trends.

Developing future industries promotes coordinated economic development. The growth of future industries is often the enhancement of the comprehensive competitive strength of various links of the industrial system. The large-scale industrialization of cutting-edge technologies will also stimulate investment in raw materials, components, production equipment, industrial software, and productive services, forming a future industrial chain. With the introduction of future industrial planning policies across the country, future industries will play a more systematic leading role, including spreading knowledge and technology to surrounding areas, providing industrial support to equalize underdeveloped and developed regions, improving risk response capabilities, and enhancing regional economic resilience.

Developing future industries supports green economic development. Future industries include a variety of eco-friendly industries. They are characterized by technological intensity, low consumption of material resources, and low emissions. Future industries integrate ecological conservation with economic development, incorporating a multitude of innovative activities that aim to minimize resource and energy waste. By doing so, they play a pivotal role in the building of an eco-civilization.

Developing future industries boosts economic openness and development. China’s future industries enjoy a very broad international market and also face competition for international technologies, talent, and resources.

Developing future industries empowers the sharing economy. In the future, these industries have the potential to introduce a diverse range of new products to the market, transforming them into widely sought-after consumer goods. They provide the necessary hardware equipment and software environment for the dissemination and sharing of knowledge, enabling residents to access technological, economic, and knowledge-related benefits at a more affordable cost.

Holistic planning

Future industries represent newly emerging endeavors, often accompanied by high R&D costs for innovative technologies and invention patents. To foster their growth, it is essential to establish a robust environment that safeguards innovation and provides ample support for their cultivation. The government should leverage its overall coordination capabilities, strengthen intellectual property (IP) protection, establish an internationally recognized IP system, utilize modern technologies to improve law enforcement, and crack down on infringements in accordance with the law. In particular, it is necessary to provide top-level design and service support for the development of future industries.

It is suggested to strengthen financial support, improve risk investment mechanisms, and expand investment and financing channels. A technological innovation funding and financing mechanism should be established with enterprises as the main body, aloneside government guidance, market operation, and risk sharing, as well as a diversified investment and financing system. It is imperative to construct a financial system and operational mechanism that aligns with national sci-tech policies, to form a diverse capital investment framework for future industries and to explore the creation of IP-related financial products.

It is further suggested to create an ecosystem for future industries and stimulate the vitality of micro market entities. Focusing on the commercial transformation of cutting-edge technologies, we should build future industrial incubators, and create a social environment conducive to innovation and entrepreneurship by providing funding, guidance, and training opportunities, turning creativity into successful business cases. Additionally, we should engage in forward-looking, comprehensive upgrading of 5G base stations, accelerating the construction of new infrastructure in major fields such as ultra-high voltage, intercity high-speed railway and urban rail transit, and new energy vehicle charging stations, big data centers, artificial intelligence, industrial internet, etc., and provide early markets for the transformation of cutting-edge technologies into future industries by means of government purchases, enhancing consumers’ confidence and stimulating consumption potential.

The market effects of a major country should be leveraged to build a unified domestic market. Focusing on the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and Yangtze River Economic Belt, we should concentrate our efforts on building a group of national and globally renowned future industrial clusters. These clusters will be strategically positioned at the forefront of global advancements, creating a development pattern in which the eastern regions take the lead and the central and western regions gradually catch up. It is imperative to establish a unified, open, competitive and orderly market-based allocation system for factors of production, and promote industrial collaboration, technical cooperation and talent exchange among different regions on the premise that different regions clearly define their future industrial positioning.

It is recommended to coordinate independent and open innovation, while simultaneously building a production and supply system that is both independent and controllable. The utilization of domestic and international R&D and innovation resources should be coordinated, foreign innovation factors attracted to flow into the domestic market, foreign investment encouraged to participate in the construction of future industries, and the realization of economies of scale in future industries accelerated.

Wen Yuyuan is a professor from the School of Applied Economics at Renmin University of China (RUC) and Wang Zhiqing is from the School of Economics at RUC.

Edited by ZHAO YUAN