The Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China reviewed and approved the "15th Five-Year Plan" recommendations, clearly proposing to increase the construction and opening of application scenarios and implement large-scale application demonstration actions for new technologies, new products, and new scenarios. Just one week after the closing of the plenary session, the State Council executive meeting on October 31, 2025 specifically studied the scenario issue, marking this work as a "prior project" of the "15th Five-Year Plan". In November 2025, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Implementation Opinions on Accelerating Scenario Cultivation and Opening Up to Promote Large-scale Application of New Scenarios" (Guobanfa [2025] No. 37), requiring "the launch of a list of application scenario projects in batches." Recently, the National Development and Reform Commission, together with relevant departments, officially issued the first batch of 136 landmark major application scenario projects. Launching this batch of projects is not a general task and is of great significance at the current stage.
The launch of application scenario projects is a major reform with strong traction
Why use so much effort to capture the scene? This is a logical starting point for understanding this work. From the perspective of policy logic, scenarios are not general policy tools, but scarce resources that connect technological innovation and industrial development, and connect demand and supply. They are institutional arrangements for relaxing market access and innovating the allocation of factors. Taking the opening of the scene as the starting point, it leads to a big game of coordinated reform of the economic system.
Scenarios are the bridge that connects technology and industry. The “15th Five-Year Plan” recommends placing the deep integration of technological innovation and industrial innovation in a prominent position. The biggest obstacle to the integration of the two is that there is a "Darwinian Dead Sea" between technology and industry. The results in the laboratory cannot reach the production line, and the needs on the production line cannot reach the laboratory. Scenarios are exactly the bridge across this dead sea. They can provide a real experimental verification environment for cutting-edge technologies, allowing technologies to iterate in applications and products to mature in the market. If you grasp the scene, you will grasp the "narrow tip" of the synergy between scientific and technological system reform and industrial innovation.
Scenarios are the key to solving the difficulties and blockages in people’s livelihood. During the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, the tasks of building a healthy China and actively responding to the aging of the population are arduous. Many of the urgent and difficult problems faced by the people, such as medical treatment, elderly care, and rehabilitation, are not due to insufficient total resources, but to poor systems and mechanisms, and poor connection between supply and demand. Scenarios provide new problem-solving ideas, open up real people's livelihood needs, and allow technology, model and institutional innovation to work together around needs. “Build the scene wherever the demand is” is an important path for people-centered development thinking to take root.
Scenario is the carrier of innovative element configuration. For a long time, factor allocation has mainly relied on two methods: administrative allocation and market competition. Scenarios provide a third mechanism, driven by demand, to allow technology, data, talents, and capital to flow across borders, reorganize and integrate around real application goals. During the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, the reform of market-oriented allocation of factors will be advanced in depth, especially in the fields of new factors such as data, aerospace, and deep sea, which require new scenarios and new mechanisms. The process of scenario opening is itself a process of market-oriented allocation reform of factors, and the improvement of allocation efficiency is a real dividend of reform.
Scenarios are a channel to expand the space for private economic development. In the past, many major infrastructure and public service application areas were “visible but inaccessible” to private enterprises. State Council Document No. 37 clearly requires state-owned enterprises, especially central enterprises, to actively open up scenarios in their main business fields and attract participation from private enterprises, small and medium-sized enterprises and scientific research institutes. This is not a simple project opportunity for private enterprises, but an institutional development opportunity. It is an important incision for the implementation of the Private Economy Promotion Law to be effective. In this sense, scene reform is also a profound market-oriented reform.
The iconic scene project is a benchmark for converting planning blueprints into construction drawings. The advancement of reform has its own rules. One function of major projects is to lead from point to point and set standards. The first batch of projects are like setting up a batch of "model rooms". They not only send a clear signal to the whole society that the scene is open, allowing all kinds of subjects to see the direction and opportunities, but also undertake the function of exploring paths and accumulating experience. The experience gained can be copied and the paths discovered can be promoted. From them, various localities can see clearly how to choose scenes, how to open up resources, and how to coordinate reforms. Using demonstrations to solve problems and benchmarks to lead the way, scene cultivation and opening can be carried out from point to area and step by step. This is exactly the application of the reform methodology of grasping typical examples and taking the overall situation into scene work.
The first batch of landmark major application scenario projects have distinctive characteristics
The first batch of 136 scenario projects has achieved full coverage of the five major types of application scenarios proposed in the State Council’s No. 37 document: new fields and new tracks, industrial transformation and upgrading, industry field applications, social governance services, and people’s livelihood fields. It involves the promotion and application of more than 1,700 new technologies and more than 1,200 new products, and promotes the formulation of more than 2,200 new standards and specifications. From the composition and layout of the project, we can read the deep considerations at the national level, which reflect several distinctive characteristics.
The first is to focus on new fields and new tracks in the “15th Five-Year Plan” to gain opportunities for future industries. The development of future industries often depends on who is the first to pass the technical route in the real environment. For example, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology takes the lead in integrating digital R&D and design scenarios for industrial robots, targeting the industry pain points of insufficient penetration of general manufacturing robots, building an open, standard, and ecological industrial robot application and development environment, and opening up practical space for iterative upgrades of intelligent manufacturing equipment; Beijing takes the lead in cultivating technological innovation scenarios for 6G ubiquitous intelligent connected new business formats, relying on independently developed 6G open The crowd-creation test device provides a large-scale practical verification environment for at least six types of applications, including embodied intelligent robots and immersive communications, allowing my country to take the lead in the competition for next-generation communication technologies. Sichuan has taken the lead in the full ecological verification scenario of the brain-computer interface, building 23 subdivided scenarios, opening three types of application interfaces: serious medical care, community family, and commercial consumption, and building a systematic entrance from scientific research to application for cutting-edge technologies. The significance of these layouts is to transform future-oriented strategic layouts into today's advanced actions.
The second is to take out the "housekeeping" link of central enterprises, marking the opening of the scene into the "deep water zone". Central enterprises are taking the lead in 21 scenarios, all of which are core links in the main business. The significance is to turn the scarcest resources into an innovation platform shared by the whole society. For example, the National Oil and Gas Pipeline Network Group has opened up the intrinsic safety scenario of oil and gas pipeline network information, integrated quantum technology, native intelligence and other cutting-edge elements, developed 28 new technologies and 21 new products, and built a "future-oriented quantum network" security barrier; the State Grid has opened up the 100-kilowatt-level new energy scenario in northern Hebei, laid out 22 projects, systematically verified 56 new technologies and new products, and tackled key problems such as flexible network construction and active wind and solar storage support. and other world-class problems; China Southern Power Grid has joined forces with Huawei and other companies to open up new power system open source IoT operating system scenarios, opening the digital base of the power grid to the society; China Yajiang Group has opened up green and intelligent construction scenarios for giant hydropower projects, turning the Century Project construction site into the largest testing ground for intelligent construction technology; China CRRC Group has turned extreme environments such as high cold, ice, snow and freezing rain into a natural laboratory for rail transit equipment verification, etc. This opening up of real money is a substantial advancement of market access reform, and its demonstration significance goes beyond the project itself.
Third, it embodies the local spirit of exploration and provides a solid foundation for scene work. Among the first batch of projects, there are 90 scenarios led by local governments, covering 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities). Their value lies in providing diverse samples for national-level institutional innovation through differentiated exploration. The Yiwu Global Digital Trade Center scenario, led by Zhejiang, embeds new technologies such as virtual interaction and multi-lingual services into the real business of global small commodity trade, answering the contemporary issue of the leap from a traditional trading province to a strong digital trade province; Anhui takes the lead in the automotive industry's full-link collaborative innovation scenario, allowing industry chain main enterprises, ecological platforms, universities and colleges and technological cutting-edge companies to collaborate on the same stage; Guangzhou uses 5G smart patrol vehicles and ophthalmology data platforms to promote graded diagnosis and treatment of universal eye health, opening up channels for sinking high-quality medical resources, etc. Each locality shows its strengths and competes for exploration, which reflects the organic combination of top-level design and grassroots initiative.
Fourth, the synergy features are obvious, achieving cross-department, cross-region, and cross-field linkage layout. Scenario problems often span multiple governance units, and collaboration is the outstanding gene of the first batch of projects. From the perspective of departmental coordination, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Emergency Management, the National Mine Safety Supervision Bureau and other departments are taking the lead in 25 scenarios, working in the same direction as 21 projects led by central enterprises and 90 projects led by local governments, forming a unified promotion pattern. From the perspective of cross-regional collaboration, Jiangsu has joined forces with Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shandong, Anhui, and Zhejiang to create a Grand Canal city-linked collaborative elderly care scene, and has built three major collaboration zones along the Millennium Canal to form a "canal plan" for elderly care scenes; Guangdong has joined forces with Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Hainan Southern and Inner Mongolia are promoting new energy storage scenarios, and are uniting 14 cities in 7 provinces (regions) to explore cross-regional energy and power synergy; the digital intelligence activation scenario of the cultural heritage of the Forbidden City is linking the cultural tourism departments of various provinces and hosting sites such as Huangshan, Taishan, and Wuyishan, allowing cultural digitization to move from a single point to a system. From the perspective of cross-domain collaboration, highway transportation and energy integration application scenarios turn roadside slopes and service areas into new energy development carriers, realizing two-way empowerment of transportation and energy. These scenarios are all concrete developments in the construction of a unified national market and have positive exploratory significance in breaking down various barriers and boundaries.
The fifth is to adhere to a problem-oriented approach and use a scenario-based approach to solve problems that have been tried but failed to be solved for many years. To test the quality of scene work, you need to see whether it dares to deal with real problems and whether it can crack "hard bones". The emergency management department led the unmanned intelligent fire extinguishing scene in the hazardous chemicals storage tank area. It uses intelligent inspection robots to patrol 24 hours a day and L4 unmanned fire trucks to dispose accurately, replacing rescuers from explosive, toxic and high-temperature environments, and directly addressing the stubborn safety problem of hazardous chemical disposal. The smart mine construction scene led by the National Mine Safety Supervision Bureau covers no less than 2,800 mines. , systematically verifying new technologies such as intelligent sensing and driverless driving in three major types of mines, leveraging dual changes in mine production models and safety supervision mechanisms; the digital home scenario led by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development integrates domestic operating systems, embodied robots and other technologies into the construction of "good houses"; the industrialization construction scenario of intelligent rehabilitation assistive devices led by the Ministry of Civil Affairs focuses on the "last mile" of elderly care and assistance to the disabled. These problems cannot be solved by the market alone and cannot be cured by administrative orders alone. The scenario provides a two-wheel drive systematic solution of "technical verification + institutional innovation".
Relying on the first batch of projects to deepen reform and accelerate the formation of reform results
Scenario project construction focuses on implementation and results, and its value lies in leveraging the overall reform from point to point. The launch of the first batch of 136 projects is just a starting point, and continued efforts will be made at multiple levels in the next step.
First, we need to amplify the demonstration effect and accelerate the formation of a set of replicable and scalable scenarios to cultivate open work paradigms, institutional mechanisms, institutional standards, and business models. In accordance with the deployment of the State Council Document No. 37, the list of application scenario projects must be continuously launched in batches, focusing on the layout of new field and new track scenarios, high-value small-cut scenarios and cross-regional and cross-domain comprehensive scenarios; timely summary of good experiences and good practices of the first batch of projects, refine and form new scenarios and new models that can be replicated and promoted; adhere to overall planning and orderly advancement, scientifically organize implementation according to location, industry, and enterprise, and prevent rush and low-level duplication of construction.
Second, we must deepen reforms and coordinately promote reforms in scenarios, access, and factors. The essence of scene openness is the openness of access. It is necessary to improve the market access system for new business forms and new fields, reduce institutional thresholds while maintaining the bottom line of safety, and explore standards-first access management models for frontier fields such as digital economy, artificial intelligence, and biotechnology; open up the linkage chain of market access, scene opening, and factor allocation, and explore The market-based allocation of new elements such as data, space, deep sea, and spectrum rails; the practice of opening up monopoly links of central and state-owned enterprises is refined into replicable and generalizable access rules, so that "first trial, first use" becomes a stable expectation of "dare to venture and dare to invest", forming a closed loop of reforms that are interlocking and mutually supportive.
Third, it is necessary to improve the long-term mechanism to ensure the steady and long-term development of scene construction. It is necessary to speed up the improvement of supporting policies and standard details for scene cultivation and openness, promote the connection of scene construction with industry standards, and certification and accreditation systems; improve error tolerance, error correction, and dynamic exit mechanisms to give innovators confidence and a way out; cultivate and expand professional scene service organizations and innovate scene operation models; strengthen department coordination and central-local linkage, strengthen evaluation monitoring and experience promotion, and create a good ecosystem that encourages innovation and tolerates failure, so that the results of scene construction can benefit more regions and entities.
Author: Dong Yu, Executive Vice President of China Development Planning Institute of Tsinghua University, Vice President of China Private Economy Research Association
