The outlook for China’s innovation-driven development beyond COVID-19

In the post-COVID-19 era, high-quality development will be a key characteristic of China’s economic development. Despite the disruption caused by the pandemic, China’s economy has remained on track for stable and long-term development. In the bid to drive China’s economic transition from factor-driven to innovation-driven development, it is imperative to improve total factor productivity, and that effort should focus on five key factors: urbanization and labour migration; the spillover effect of foreign technologies; human capital enhancement; scientific and technological progress; and marketization process. It is important to align with the main trends and directions of the scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation. It will be increasingly necessary to focus on developing a dominant technological system represented by next-generation information technology, biotechnology, new energy sources and new materials and to leverage key accelerators of progress, including institutional reform, market optimization and indigenous innovation in order to advance high-quality economic development.