Execs, experts endorse nation's pursuit of cutting-edge growth

Business titans' backing

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, said in an interview with China Daily that China's sharpened focus on cultivating new quality productive forces "is essential", adding "it is the future".

Highlighting that "Apple and China grew together over the past three decades, a symbiotic kind of relationship both enjoyed," Cook said Apple's Chinese suppliers now have the most advanced manufacturing in the world.

"If you look at the automation level, it's not just off-the-shelf automation. It is customized automation. They have robotics, automatic guided vehicles and very precise vision systems," the senior executive added.

"There's no supply chain in the world more critical to Apple than that of China. We've been building up and investing more and more here," Cook said.

Denis Depoux, global managing director of market consultancy Roland Berger, said the concept of new quality productive forces indicates China's strategic shift toward modern and sustainable economic growth.

"The old China stories of the past — low labor costs, relatively few added-value products, massive exports and massive fixed asset investments in infrastructure building and fueling the economy — are gone," he said. "The new China story relies on factors such as advanced manufacturing, decarbonization, growing innovation prowess and the services economy."

Jeffrey Sachs, a renowned economist and director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University in the United States, said: "China's strength right now is that it is on the cutting edge of many of the most important technology innovations for the future, including low-carbon energy solutions, electric vehicles, batteries, supply chains, high-speed trains and many other sectors. All of this will be very good for China's growth in the future."