Understanding China·Quality Wins a New Era: Experts explain how Shaanxi builds a modern industrial system

Editor's note: In order to promote the party's innovative theory to "fly into the homes of ordinary people", the Shaanxi Provincial Party Committee Cyberspace Affairs Office and the Shaanxi Channel of the Central Broadcasting Network jointly planned and launched the "Reflecting China·Quality Wins New Era" integrated media communication column, focusing on the development of new quality productivity in accordance with local conditions and other major decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee and core issues of the times, establishing and practicing correct To ensure the concept of political performance, focus on the vivid practices of industrial upgrading, technological innovation, rural revitalization, green ecology, etc. in various industries in Shaanxi Province, and create an all-media communication system integrating short videos, graphic products, audio, etc., allowing grand theories to take root in reality, close to the people, and contribute wisdom and strength to the comprehensive promotion of Chinese-style modernization.

In this issue, Wu Gang, head and researcher of the Institute of Economics of the Shaanxi Academy of Social Sciences, is invited to explain how Shaanxi can comprehensively promote the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, actively develop emerging industries, and proactively plan for the implementation of future industries.

CCTV News from Xi'an on October 3 (reporter Chen Qiang, intern reporter Chen Youen) The modern industrial system is the material and technological foundation for Chinese modernization. The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China proposed to “improve the system and mechanism for developing new productive forces in accordance with local conditions.” The “15th Five-Year Plan” recommendations adopted by the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China put “building a modern industrial system and consolidating and strengthening the foundation of the real economy” as the first strategic task. We must persist in comprehensively promoting the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, actively develop emerging industries, and proactively plan future industries. What is the key and how to implement it locally? The reporter had an exclusive interview with Wu Gang, head and researcher of the Economic Research Institute of the Shaanxi Academy of Social Sciences.

All three are indispensable

The three major industries each have their own positioning and complement each other. "Traditional industries are the current mainstay and key industries for stabilizing growth and protecting people's livelihood; strategic emerging industries are industries that will be profitable in the future and seize the commanding heights. They need to be cultivated and strengthened to become new pillars, and their development needs to rely on the resources, raw materials and even business models of traditional industries; future industries are industries that will occupy the commanding heights in the future and must be planned ahead." Wu Gang believes that the three major industries are interconnected and empower each other, and they are indispensable to build an industrial system that circulates and coordinates with each other in "simultaneous development".

Once the relationship has been clarified, a "ruler" is still needed: What kind of industrial system is considered modern and competitive? Wu Gang proposed three dimensions: First, it is independent and controllable, and key core technologies must be in one's own hands, and it is difficult to become an independent industry if it is controlled by others; second, it is safe and reliable, and industries that develop in isolation may break or even disappear, depending on whether they can develop chain groups and provide local support; third, strong competitiveness depends on the resilience of the supply chain composed of materials, markets, and technology systems.

Layout into a chain and achieve results

In 2025, the total output value of 34 key industrial chains in Shaanxi province will reach 2.47 trillion yuan, and the output value of 11 industrial chains will reach 100 billion yuan. "Energy, chemicals, and new energy vehicles have outstanding advantages and are the basic foundation of 'ballast'; integrated circuits, electronic information, photonics, photovoltaics and other industries have grown relying on scientific and educational resources and industrial advantages. They are large in scale and some of their products are leading domestically and internationally. They are the main engines of growth." Wu Gang said that artificial intelligence, low-altitude economy, commercial aerospace and other fields also have resource advantages, and the construction of low-altitude equipment manufacturing clusters is accelerating.

Take the photonics industry chain as an example: In 2021, Shaanxi took the lead in releasing the "Light Chasing Plan" in China. The current number of photonics companies has increased from 191 in 2021 to 409 in 2025, and the total output value has increased from 15 billion yuan in 2021 to 41 billion yuan in 2025, an increase of 173%. The photonic integration industry pilot platform was selected into the first batch of national-level manufacturing pilot platforms. "The government is promising and the market is effective." The innovation chain, industrial chain, capital chain, and talent chain are deeply integrated, and have good development prospects.

For the industrial chain to take off, the results must first be implemented. From idea to product, from laboratory to market, every step is extremely difficult. Wu Gang summarized it as a "triple jump": concept verification, that is, "from 0 to 1", allowing ideas to be implemented in engineering and drawings in the laboratory; pilot maturity, that is, "from 1 to 10", verifying and debugging in real scenarios. Many technologies will be eliminated because they are not suitable for harsh conditions; scale, that is, "from 10 to N", requires financial resources, talent support and market orders. If you have capital and orders, conversion will be fast, and vice versa, it will be difficult to scale up. The chain is indispensable. Once it is built, scientific and technological achievements can move from technology to engineering and industrialization. It is expected that by the end of this year, Shaanxi will have cultivated and identified 60 concept verification centers and pilot bases, forming a scientific and technological achievement transformation model with Shaanxi characteristics.

Reform empowers development to benefit the people

The chain must be smooth and the system must be guaranteed. In recent years, Shaanxi has relied on Qin Chuangyuan to accelerate the transformation of scientific and technological achievements with "three reforms" and achieved breakthroughs in three aspects: First, institutional breakthroughs, loosening policies to turn scientific researchers from "not wanting to change" to "wanting to change"; second, allowing enterprises to truly become the main body of innovation, with enterprises setting topics and organizing scientific research institutes through "unveiling lists and taking charge" The answers to the questions and results are handed over to enterprises for market application, forming a closed loop and cultivating a group of specialized new enterprises that focus on professional tracks and occupy key ecological niches; the third is a conceptual breakthrough, planning innovation from an ecological perspective, and promoting technology, industry, talent, and finance in an integrated way, so that the results can go out of the laboratory and onto the production line.

Wu Gang believes that to comprehensively rectify "involvement" competition, we must simultaneously make efforts in policy guidance, market cultivation, and innovation ecology to guide healthy competition among enterprises. As far as Shaanxi is concerned, scientific and technological innovation must be invested more in increments, accurately docked with actual needs, and let scientific and technological achievements be put into more new industries; industrial innovation must be developed in a differentiated manner to achieve "I have what others don't have, and I have excellence when others have", and promote the industry from following and running together to leading.

The modernization of the industrial system must ultimately benefit the people. Wu Gang suggested that policies should be implemented in different categories: seize the commanding heights that can be focused, focus on major scientific and technological projects, and focus more on the main economic battlefield to solve the problems and worries of the masses. Regardless of technological innovation or industrial innovation, it must bring employment and a real sense of gain.

"A modern industrial system depends not only on key technologies, supply chain resilience, local supporting rates, the proportion of new products and new business formats, but also on the relevance of local people's livelihood. This is the ideal modern industrial system," Wu Gang said. There is no shortcut to building a modern industrial system. The answer to the "15th Five-Year Plan" lies in the hard work of focusing on one industry and one reform after another.