Provide long-term financial support for the development of new quality productivity
2025-12-04
The "Fifteenth Five Year Plan" clearly proposes to "accelerate the self-reliance of high-level science and technology, and lead the development of new quality productivity", emphasizing that Chinese path to modernization needs to rely on the support of scientific and technological modernization. New quality productivity is an advanced quality of productivity that plays a leading role in innovation and conforms to the new development concept. It is born from revolutionary technological breakthroughs, innovative allocation of production factors, and deep industrial transformation and upgrading, with a significant increase in total factor productivity as its core symbol. Capital factors, especially long-term capital, have a profound impact on technological innovation and the transformation of achievements, and are key factors in cultivating and developing new quality productive forces. Facing the 15th Five Year Plan, we must effectively leverage the role of long-term capital and patient capital to provide more long-term and stable financial support for the development of new quality productive forces. The process of transforming scientific and technological achievements is characterized by a long chain, multiple links, high risks, high costs, and long cycles. Improving the level of transformation of scientific and technological innovation achievements, cultivating and developing new quality productive forces, cannot do without the guidance and catalysis of long-term capital. At the level of technological innovation, continuous capital investment is required for basic research and enterprise R&D innovation activities in order to continuously break through technological bottlenecks. Purchasing equipment, building production lines, and attracting talent all require long-term financial support. The lack of stable long-term investment can easily lead to interruptions in the innovation process and obstacles in the transformation of scientific and technological achievements. At the level of industrial innovation, optimizing and upgrading traditional industries, cultivating and strengthening emerging and future industries also require sustained and stable financial support. If there is a lack of guidance, capital tends to cluster in industries with stable expected returns, and there is insufficient support for new technologies, products, and models. Applying innovative achievements to specific industries and industrial chains requires long-term capital empowerment to help solve problems such as difficult technology transformation, slow market validation, and limited scale promotion. In recent years, China has accelerated the improvement of relevant institutional mechanisms, continuously increased funding supply, provided more stable and long-term financial support for scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation, better empowered breakthroughs in key core technologies, and assisted in the development of new quality productivity. The Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Further Comprehensively Deepening Reform and Promoting Chinese path to modernization proposed to "encourage and standardize the development of angel investment, venture capital and private equity investment, better play the role of government investment funds, and develop patient capital". In January 2025, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the High Quality Development of Government Investment Funds", clarifying the positioning of government investment funds and requiring them to "focus on major strategies, key areas, and weak links where the market cannot fully play its role, attract and drive more social capital, support the construction of a modern industrial system, and accelerate the cultivation and development of new quality productive forces". It emphasized that by reasonably determining the duration of government investment funds, actively guiding long-term capital investment such as national social security funds and insurance funds, and developing and strengthening long-term capital and resilience capital. Subsequently, multiple policies such as the Implementation Plan for Promoting Medium - and Long Term Capital Market Entry, the Implementation Plan for High Quality Development of Technology and Finance in the Banking and Insurance Industry, and the Action Plan for Promoting High Quality Development of Public Funds were introduced, forming a more comprehensive institutional framework. At the same time, the support mechanism for technological innovation in the capital market is more sound, and a "green channel" for financing is established to provide policy convenience for technology companies that break through key core technologies to go public for financing, mergers and acquisitions, and restructuring. In 2024, China's research and experimental development (RD) investment reached 3632.68 billion yuan, with an investment intensity of 2.69%, exceeding the average level of EU countries for several consecutive years. In the first four years of the 14th Five Year Plan, the average annual growth rate of RD funds was 10.5%, ranking among the top in the world's major economies in terms of growth rate. At the same time, the investment structure is showing a continuous trend of optimization, and the long-term capital supply is constantly increasing. As of the end of June 2025, the balance of loans for technology-based small and medium-sized enterprises reached 3.46 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 22.9%, with a growth rate 16.1 percentage points higher than other types of loans. Since 2021, a total of 376 companies have gone public on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, raising over 600 billion yuan in funds. By 2025, the scale of re lending for technological innovation and transformation will reach 800 billion yuan. Since the 14th Five Year Plan, insurance funds have invested over 5.4 trillion yuan in stocks and equity funds, with a balance that has increased by 85% compared to the end of the 13th Five Year Plan; Technology insurance has provided risk protection totaling over 10 trillion yuan, with the first set and batch of insurance supporting 3600 innovative application projects, providing important protection for technology research and development and achievement transformation. At the same time, it should be noted that long-term investment still does not match the demand for the development of new quality productivity, and there are still some problems in reality. The profit driven nature and low-risk preference of capital lead to a tendency towards traditional short-term investment projects, and the patient capital scale is still insufficient; Unequal capital allocation among departments makes it difficult for a large number of specialized, innovative, and technology-based small and medium-sized enterprises to obtain financing; Insufficient investment incentives in areas such as concept validation and pilot testing, and insufficient utilization of long-term equity investment; Wait. Accelerating the cultivation and development of new quality productive forces requires starting from optimizing the investment environment, strengthening patient capital, innovating financial products, and further increasing long-term capital support. One is to continuously optimize the investment environment. Establish a market ecology that cultivates long-term investment, improve the basic system of the capital market that adapts to long-term investment, protect the rights and interests of investors, and enhance the confidence of business entities in long-term investment. Deepen the reform of the fiscal and taxation system, strengthen innovation incentives, and improve tax incentives for investment in technology trading, achievement transformation, and pilot testing. Optimize the research funding mechanism for universities and research institutes, and encourage long-term investment in basic research. The second is to cultivate and strengthen patient capital. Encourage long-term investment of state-owned capital in innovation fields, strengthen investment layout in basic research, key core technology breakthroughs, and forward-looking strategic emerging industries, and better leverage the driving role of state-owned capital. Innovate the use of fiscal funds, maintain the intensity of fiscal investment in science and technology, and strengthen support for basic research, key core technology breakthroughs, and national strategic scientific and technological forces. Appropriately expanding the investment scope of the national social security fund, leveraging the long-term investment advantages of insurance funds, and continuously increasing investment in scientific and technological innovation. Innovate the use of insurance funds and guide insurance funds to provide support for technological innovation and development. Thirdly, actively innovate financial products. Optimize structural monetary policy tools that support technological innovation, and encourage banks to increase credit loans and medium - to long-term loans for technology-based enterprises. Innovatively launch credit products such as "R&D Loan", "Achievement Loan", "Equipment Renewal Loan", etc., and increase financial support for technological innovation, equipment renewal, and technological transformation. Guide insurance companies to provide insurance products covering the entire process of technological innovation activities, focusing on key aspects such as technology research and development, achievement transformation and application promotion, and intellectual property protection. Author: Zhu Guoping (Researcher at Jilin Provincial Research Center for the Theory of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics and Vice President of Jilin University of Finance and Economics)
Edit:Luoyu Responsible editor:Wang Xiaojing
Source:ECONOMIC DAILY
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