Editor's note: Development is one of the themes of the current era and the first priority of the Communist Party of China in governing and rejuvenating the country. Centering on the "innovative development concept", the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee clearly put forward the new development concept of "innovation, coordination, green, open and sharing", which reflects our party's new understanding of the laws of socialist construction. Recently, we invited Professor Zhou Wenzhang, the former vice president of the National School of Administration, to interpret the new development concept for netizens.

Moderator: Dear netizens, welcome to the column "China's Journey - Micro Party Class Series Celebrating the 95th Anniversary of the Founding of the Party". We mentioned the new development concept. What is the meaning of the new development concept?

 

Zhou Wenzhang: The new development concept is an important change related to the overall development of our country. It has very important practical significance and far-reaching historical impact. This can be clearly seen from the development process of our country. In China's 60 years of development, there have been many development concepts or development concepts, which have been influencing our development. I call it the concept of romantic development. Its typical slogan is how bold people are and how productive they are. In addition to 1958 and the period of ten years of turmoil, the development concept of our country is generally influenced by a very important development concept, which is what I call the key development concept. This view of development was put forward in response to the urgent problems and major difficulties facing our country. The key development concept has accurately grasped the main difficulties we are facing, the main contradictions and problems in the economy, and tailored the medicine to the case. Therefore, the implementation results have enabled us to gradually overcome one difficulty after another, get out of the difficulties, and move towards development. Therefore, this concept of development has played a very good role in the development of our country. The way of thinking and working of philosophy embodied in this concept of development is to focus on key points, which is applicable at any time. However, everything has two sides, and the key development concept is no exception. Because both attention and neglect; Where there is emphasis, there is mediocrity. Therefore, we attach importance to the city, ignoring the countryside; Pay attention to economy, neglect society; Pay attention to development and neglect resources and environment; They pay attention to the immediate, but ignore the long-term. However, as time goes by, the problems become more and more numerous. Our concept of development needs to continue to move forward. We need to have a new concept of development, which will become the guiding ideology of development in the new historical period. The Scientific Outlook on Development came into being. Therefore, according to my review, the Scientific Outlook on Development should be the fourth kind of development outlook that has a significant impact in our country - the Scientific Outlook on Development.

The Scientific Outlook on Development emphasizes people first and regards people as the starting point and foothold of development. The people here refer to the people. The goal of development is to realize, safeguard and develop the fundamental interests of the people, which is also the destination of development. At the same time, its goal is comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable, and the approach is to make overall plans. In order to implement the Scientific Outlook on Development, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China has timely adjusted the assessment criteria for the leadership of cadres, GDP is no longer the only assessment indicator, or the weight of GDP in the performance of cadres is declining. For example, environmental issues, resource protection issues, employment issues and people's livelihood issues are all included in the assessment scope. Even the borrowing during the term of office is used as an assessment to prevent us from doing a lot of things and leaving a pile of debt. The attitude towards dealing with problems left over by history is also used as an assessment indicator to prevent some of our comrades and new officials from ignoring the old and doing things that affect the integrity of the government. Therefore, after the implementation of the Scientific Outlook on Development, the thought of leadership development has had a great impact on Party committees and governments at all levels, leading groups and leading cadres at all levels, and the results of development have also changed greatly.

The Scientific Outlook on Development has withstood the test of history, so the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China has written the Scientific Outlook on Development into the Party Constitution, which has become an important part of our Party's guiding ideology.

The problems we have accumulated over the years cannot be overcome at once. For example, we have relied on investment for many years, especially on high consumption, energy consumption, resource consumption, and high emissions. This has caused great pressure on the ecological environment, which has reached an unbearable level. The lack of innovation driven power is our own internal. At the same time, the international environment has not gone out of this shadow since the 2008 international financial crisis. Therefore, the international environment we need for development has also seen new developments, and the goal we have set is particularly encouraging. It is to achieve the first century goal by 2020, which is to build a moderately prosperous society in all respects, at the 100th anniversary of the founding of our Party. Then we continue to march towards the second century, which is to build our country into a prosperous, strong, democratic, civilized and harmonious socialist modern country on the centennial of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Under such circumstances, we especially need new development concepts to guide development actions. As a result, the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee put forward a new concept of development when deploying the "13th Five Year Plan", which is innovation, coordination, green, open and sharing.

Just now, through a brief review, we can see that the new concept of development is indeed a profound revolution related to the overall development, which has very important practical significance and far-reaching historical significance.

Moderator: President Zhou has just given us a very complete and systematic review of the history and changes of the development concept. We have been talking about the new development concept. How does it reflect the Party's theoretical innovation?

Zhou Wenzhang: Because the new development concept is based on the new situation we are facing, especially the new normal of economic development. Therefore, it puts innovation and development first in the new development concept. The so-called innovation is to break through the convention, break the tradition, come up with a new development idea, development measures, development mode, and finally produce new development results. This is the key to innovative development. Here, the key is to break through the tradition, break the convention, and the core is the word "new". Finally, it is tested by practice.

The central government requires us to innovate in all fields. This innovation should run through all the work of the Party and the state, and make innovation a common practice in the whole society. So innovation here is all work.

In general, there are theoretical innovations. The innovation of thought and theory is the innovation of brain power, which is a very important innovation. In retrospect, the previous great revolutions of the bourgeoisie were first led by philosophical revolutions. The reason for the great process of reform and opening up in our country is that the great discussion of practice standards has liberated people's minds. The way out of today's reform and opening up is the birth of Deng Xiaoping Theory and socialism with Chinese characteristics. For example, taking economic construction as the center makes us out of the state of taking class struggle as the key link. Development is the absolute principle, which makes us lose the reason of rebellion. Planning and the market are not the fundamental difference between socialism and capitalism. Socialism also needs the market, and capitalism also needs planning. All of a sudden, we set the establishment of a socialist market economy as the goal of our structural reform. Therefore, the innovation of ideology and theory is of great significance. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, General Secretary Xi Jinping has put forward many new ideas and theories, so that our development situation in all aspects is in a good state.

The second is system innovation. The system is more long-term, overall, influential, fundamental and stable. Good ideas, good policies and good practices are fixed through the system. A good system can mobilize people's enthusiasm, regulate people's behavior, make bad motives impossible to make mistakes, and make good people less likely to make mistakes, which is the role of the system. The Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee deployed many reforms aimed at institutional innovation.

The third is scientific and technological innovation. This is the innovation of initiative. No matter what kind of innovation we talk about, when we talk about institutional innovation, we should also talk about scientific and technological innovation. Because the introduction of science and technology into the system can make us better, such as establishing a scientific and complete supervision system, statistical system, etc., which is inseparable from scientific and technological innovation. When it comes to cultural innovation, we will also talk about technological innovation. Therefore, scientific and technological innovation, management innovation, and concept innovation are innovations in all fields. Scientific and technological innovation is initiative innovation.

The fourth is cultural innovation. Cultural innovation is the innovation of soft power, because it is now recognized that measuring a country's comprehensive national strength is not only hard power, but also economic, military, scientific and technological, as well as soft power. Soft power is mainly culture. Value is the first in the culture. Therefore, the central government has been promoting socialist core values for years, which is an important measure for us to build a cultural power in terms of cultural soft power. Because a nation without common core values is helpless and scattered. Such a nation cannot be invincible in the world. In order to revitalize the nation and make the country rich and strong, cultural soft power must be innovated, including the innovation of cultural industries and cultural undertakings. Specifically, it also includes content innovation, carrier innovation, communication mode innovation, cultural system innovation, cultural and technological innovation, including a lot of content.

Therefore, through such innovations, we should innovate in all fields. I just talked about the four main aspects. If we are going to make innovations in any aspect, several innovations must be included. The first is concept innovation. We are engaged in this work. The second is system innovation; The third is management innovation, and the fourth is scientific and technological innovation. These four innovations can be said to run through all innovations. Therefore, the concept of innovative development is the most important concept among the new development concepts, and it occupies the first place.

Moderator: President Zhou has just introduced to us why we should innovate. He has given us very vivid examples, as well as the aspects of innovation and the significance of innovation. The second place in the new development concept is coordinated development. What aspects does coordinated development include? How to coordinate development?

Zhou Wenzhang: Coordinated development is highly targeted, because although our development has made remarkable achievements, our outstanding problem is uncoordinated. It is precisely these uncoordinated areas that we need to work hard to coordinate. The first is the uncoordinated urban and rural areas, so we should focus on coordinating the development between urban and rural areas; The second is regional coordination. For example, different regions in the east, west, and east should develop in a coordinated way. The third is the coordination between man and nature, so that our man and nature can guarantee our ecological environment and support our sustainable development through this coordination. Then there is the coordination of material civilization and spiritual civilization, and the coordination of national hard power and soft power. All these coordination are important work for us to coordinate.

The importance of coordination is self-evident, and I think everyone can feel it. For example, an obvious symptom of stroke patients is uncoordinated movement. Therefore, the body should be coordinated. Where do we go on weekends? Children have their own ideas, wives have their own ideas, and husbands have their own ideas. If they don't coordinate, it will be difficult to go to one place to spend the weekend. Therefore, families should coordinate. The organization should be coordinated. Five people in one department should be coordinated. Coordination should be carried out between departments, offices, personnel, foreign affairs and functional departments. This is the organization should be coordinated. Development should be coordinated. Chairman Mao's book "On the Ten Major Relationships" saw the need for coordination in our development earlier, so it is still worth reading today. The "Working Methods of the Party Committee", Chairman Mao's work, also says that the Party Committee should coordinate all parties, divide responsibilities, and coordinate with each other. The Secretary of the Party Committee should learn to play the piano with ten fingers, which also requires us to do a good job in coordination. How to coordinate? The Central Committee pointed out several methods and ideas.

First, make overall plans. We should consider all aspects of our development thoroughly and think twice. In terms of overall planning, especially the relationship between urban and rural areas, the central government has clearly proposed to take an integrated development path, that is, to take urban and rural areas as a whole, unified planning, unified project arrangement, unified development and construction, including the equal treatment of urban and rural populations without differences. Therefore, from overall consideration to integration, this is the most effective measure for coordinated development.

The second way of coordination is to make up for weaknesses. That is to say, where the problem is the biggest, which is lagging behind, we will focus on where to make up for the shortcomings. Obviously, the development of our countryside lags behind that of the cities, so the countryside has become a weak point, and the three rural areas are weak points. For example, culture is a weak point. Compared with other aspects of investment, our investment in culture is insufficient. Culture is a weak point. For another example, social construction is a weak point. We should make up for these weak points in social construction, such as education, health and social security. Through these shortcomings, we can achieve a coordinated state on the whole. On this issue, economics often talks about the "cask principle", which can help us understand the principle of coordination to remedy weaknesses. How much water a bucket can hold depends not on the height of the bucket, but on the height of the shortest board that makes up the bucket. Therefore, we should let the bucket hold more water and make up the short board.

I recently noticed that the Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee has made a decision to make up for shortcomings in six aspects. According to the report, it is a good idea to blow the assembly number of the short board.

Another is to coordinate industrialization, informatization, urbanization, greening and other aspects at the same time. From now on, every development we are carrying out should have coordination as the guiding ideology, so it is most important not to cause incongruity at the beginning. We will make up the shortcomings left by the past. No development project we are carrying out now can create a short board, reach the goal in one step and become more coordinated.

Moderator: All aspects should be coordinated. In the coordinated development, you just mentioned the coordinated development between man and nature. We know that the third new development concept is green development. The General Secretary also mentioned that we should not only have green water and green mountains, but also have golden mountains and silver mountains. At present, we still have some problems in green development?

Zhou Wenzhang: Green development is put forward in response to the problems exposed in industrialization and urbanization, which are mainly unsustainable. For a long time, we have relied on high energy consumption, high resource consumption, and even high emissions, which has caused great pressure on our environmental resources. We used to say that our country is vast and rich in minerals. In terms of absolute quantity, we can really say that. However, anything, as long as we divide it by 1.3 billion, is very few. For example, arable land accounts for less than 10% of our land area, lower than that of the United States, and even lower than that of India. If the average population occupies only 1.22 mu of arable land, compared with the United States, India and Brazil, we are the lowest. Therefore, the central government pointed out that the red line of 1.8 billion mu of arable land cannot be broken. For another example, our per capita ownership of some major minerals, such as oil, natural gas, iron, copper, zinc and gold, is also lower than the world average. Therefore, such a state of environment and resources can hardly bear our traditional development mode. Therefore, green development is a new development mode proposed for the traditional development mode.

The meaning of green development mainly has three aspects: the first aspect is to bring environmental resources into the internal elements of development. In the past, we did not pay enough attention to this aspect. In daily life, you can see that every family is clean, tidy and orderly, and the environment outside the window, outside the door, and around is often ignored, as if it is not ours. We have a similar situation in our development, that is, environmental resources have not been included in the elements of development, and we should now include them. The second aspect is to take the coordinated development of economy and environment, society and environment as the goal of development. Our ultimate goal is not to make them uncoordinated, but to make them very consistent and sustainable. The third aspect is to take the greening and ecological development of economic process, including production process and consumption process, as the way of development. Therefore, green development has three internal meanings.

How to implement it? I consider to determine three major ways, and then strive for two major results. The first of these three modes is the green production mode, which requires the adoption of high-tech, low consumption and low emissions. In particular, green industries should be developed, such as green service industry, environmental protection industry, green catering industry, etc. It is a green production mode to resolutely avoid harmful raw materials, put an end to harmful production processes, and finally prevent our products from causing unnecessary environmental pollution.

The second is the green lifestyle, which involves the implementation of the concept of green development in the daily life of each family and unit. For example, green travel, green tourism, green transportation tools, such as the electric vehicles vigorously promoted by the government, are green. Don't indulge in extravagance, waste precious resources, etc. This is the second way, the green lifestyle.

The third way is green thinking. This is to internalize the requirements of green development into the internal thinking structure, thinking mode and thinking mode of each of us, and become a command system for our production and life behaviors. With this way of thinking, our behavior output must be green. Therefore, the establishment of thinking mode is the most important work to be done for us to implement the concept of green development. Therefore, leading cadres at all levels should internalize the requirements of green development.

Through green production mode, lifestyle and green thinking mode, two kinds of behavior results are finally produced. One is green products. Green products are non-toxic, harmless and pollution-free in the production process, low energy consumption and less environmental pollution in the use process. As a result of use, products can be scrapped, disassembled, recycled, or reused even if they can't be reused, There is no worry about safety when it is placed for a long time. This is called green product. Green food is very important for green products. We eat green food every day. This is the first result. The second result is to create a green environment, so that our environment has clean water, fresh air and a good ecological environment. General Secretary Xi Jinping has raised the ecological environment to a very high level. He said that it is the most equitable public product and the most inclusive livelihood, so we should provide green environment for the people.

Moderator: As for green development, it may really become a concept to be integrated into our life and become a way of life. If green development is a way of life, we may have to keep a more open attitude, because on the world stage, exchanges and cooperation between countries are getting closer and closer. How should we understand the fourth open development in the new development concept?

Zhou Wenzhang: Opening up is the only way for our country to achieve today's achievements. The General Secretary has raised this issue in many speeches. After General Secretary Xi became General Secretary, his first stop was in Guangdong, which actually demonstrated the determination of the Party Central Committee to reform and open up. Today we put forward opening as a development concept, which means that our core is to solve the problem of internal and external linkage of development, improve the quality of opening up, and develop a higher level of open economy.

The road of our country's opening up is gradually pushed forward through pilot projects. At the beginning, it was the opening of special economic zones, followed by the opening of 14 coastal cities, and finally expanded to the opening of provincial capital cities, along the river, along the road, along the border, and to the all-round opening of the country. To implement the concept of open development, I think, first, we should take the initiative to open up. General Secretary Xi Jinping said that the more developed China is, the more open it will be. This tells us that it is not because we have achieved today's achievements that we can open up less or more slowly. It is not a temporary measure. Today's major initiatives, such as building the "Belt and Road", establishing the Asian Investment Bank, the Silk Road Fund, and promoting cooperation among the Group of 20 countries, are a reflection of our initiative to open up.

The second is to achieve two-way opening. For a long time at the beginning of opening up, we mainly invited in and introduced in, and gradually we also went out, just like a highway, which has both going and returning, so it is two-way opening, entering the international market, entering the world, and it is our two-way opening. In the past, we saw more foreign capital coming to China to run enterprises and build buildings. Today, we also have more enterprises going out to run enterprises, engage in real estate, mine, and build roads. They have made great achievements, and this path should continue.

Third, we need to fully open up. This comprehensive opening up means two things. One is that geographically, we should open up in all directions in the east, west, north, south and north. The second meaning is to expand the scope of opening up in all areas of our economy. The 13th Five Year Plan announced that we will open up access restrictions on foreign investment in childcare, finance and insurance, which is to expand our open areas.

Fourth, fairness and openness. In the past, one of the most important ways we used to attract foreign capital was to reduce or exempt taxes, which is usually referred to as "three exemptions and two reductions". The means of production, means of livelihood, means of transportation, and office supplies used by foreign capital were imported from overseas, with three years of tax exemption and two years of tax reduction. Obviously, preferential treatment for foreign capital means that it is unfair to our own enterprises. Therefore, when this policy is implemented to a certain stage and plays its due historical role, we cannot adopt this method. Our domestic and foreign capital should be treated equally. Now, the most important thing for us to attract foreign capital is to create a fair competition environment and a predictable environment, especially a legal environment, so that foreign capital, foreign businessmen and foreign enterprises can be treated equally and fairly in China. We have implemented a negative list system for them. For areas that are not open to the public for the time being, it is clearly stated that this is a negative list. Foreign businessmen who are not on this list can invest in it.

Finally, the concept of win-win opening up is particularly good, because we should consider our interests as well as the interests of each other when opening up. This is in line with a prominent diplomatic thought of General Secretary Xi Jinping, that is, our diplomacy is to build an increasingly broad community of interests in the world, so as to cooperate with us, Join us to achieve a win-win situation. When he talked about the Chinese dream, he said in several countries that the Chinese dream is an opportunity for you. Your dreams, such as the French dream and the American dream, are also opportunities for China. We want to develop our various friendly relations in the process of mutual exchange, mutual benefit and reciprocity. This is called win-win opening.

Moderator: The win-win and open policy is particularly good. In fact, it is a concept and reflects a pattern. The fifth point of the new development concept is shared development. How do you understand this?

 

Zhou Wenzhang: The idea of sharing has been highlighted by the Central Committee in recent years. It is that we have made great achievements in reform and opening up over 30 years. The Central Committee has repeatedly stressed that we must make the achievements of reform and development shared by the people, so that the people have more sense of gain. Because people don't care much about the percentage of GDP growth or how much your fiscal revenue has increased. What they care most is whether they can see if they are sick, whether the food basket is rich, whether children can receive good education, and whether the housing conditions can be gradually improved. The achievements of reform and development must be felt by the people in all aspects of life. Among the new development concepts, sharing development has become more prominent and an important concept of our development. Its status has risen, and it has become more eye-catching and inspiring.

Why emphasize shared development? Because in the world, shared development is the most ideal state of development. Our development must not make some people feel a sense of gain, some people feel a sense of loss, or even a sense of deprivation. This state of development is the least ideal. An important reason why some countries in the world are now involved in civil strife and civil war is related to this. Sharing development is the most ideal development state. Not only that, the purpose of our party is to work for the interests of the people wholeheartedly, and to realize, maintain and develop the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people; The essence of our socialist country is to make people live a good life. Therefore, sharing the development state is also the most ideal development state for us and our development goal.

Shared development is to eliminate poverty and narrow the income gap as a breakthrough, as a starting point, gradually realize the equalization of public services, and finally move towards common prosperity. Specifically, what we need to do now is to gradually narrow the income gap. There is always a gap in income, because we need to talk about efficiency, and there is a gap in efficiency. Distribution according to work itself means a gap, but the gap should not be too large, and should be controlled within a reasonable range. To narrow the income gap is to narrow the excessive income gap, and equalitarianism can never go back this way.

Second, poverty alleviation. We still have 70 million people living in poverty. General Secretary Xi Jinping has said very well that we cannot declare that we have entered a well-off society in an all-round way on the one hand, and that there are still 70 million people still living in poverty on the other hand. In this way, we will not only affect the international community's recognition of us, but also affect the people's recognition of our comprehensive well-off society. This comprehensive first is population. Just like this, the first important meeting after the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee was the National Conference on Poverty Alleviation, which made arrangements for poverty alleviation. The measure of poverty alleviation is targeted poverty alleviation. For those who have the ability to work, we help the poor through industry. For those who can't support one person on one side, we move to help the poor, migrate to help the poor, and for the 20 million people who have lost the ability to work, the government provides the bottom line. The hat of Poverty Alleviation County will become something in the history museum, and will not be there. Poverty alleviation is the second important measure for us to implement shared development.

Third, equalization of public services. Public services include public services for medical and health care. We are now solving these problems through new cooperative medical care, overall planning for serious diseases, and increasing reimbursement rates. At the same time, we will reform the medical and health system and arrange the distribution. For example, recently it was mentioned that there are too few children's hospitals, which are not suitable for children's medical needs in life. They are crowded. We should focus on developing children's hospitals and general practitioners. Thirdly, cultural public services. The state proposes that people in all regions should be able to listen to the radio, watch TV, read books, read newspapers, enjoy public culture, and participate in public cultural activities. This is the public cultural services that we should now strive to popularize. The elderly care service and education are also an important part of public services. Now everyone hopes that their children will not lose at the starting line, and they will get good quality education resources at the beginning. They will not hesitate to choose a quality school for their children, but this demand is growing, and there are more and more contradictions. In recent years, Beijing has issued a policy that no longer allows school selection, but enrolls nearby according to the region. To enroll nearby according to the school district has overcome some of our current contradictions, but new problems still exist, because the educational resources in different regions are not the same, the best way is to make each school in each region become a high-quality educational resource, and the education level is generally improved. The public service of education will be a long-term arduous task before us. In this regard, special efforts are needed.

Finally, with the goal of achieving common prosperity, through various efforts, we will finally move towards common prosperity. This is the essential requirement of socialism.

Moderator: President Zhou gave us a very detailed interpretation of these new development concepts one by one. We know that 2016 is the first year of the 13th Five Year Plan. In such a year, how can our new development philosophy lead the development of the 13th Five Year Plan?

Zhou Wenzhang: With such a good new development concept, the urgent task we face now is to put it into action and turn it into a new development behavior. To achieve this, the first and most important thing is that we should internalize it into our operating system and our way of thinking, so that we act in accordance with the requirements of new development concepts. The second is to design the top level and implement the basic level. When we talk about the top level, we naturally think of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, which are the highest level in our country. In addition, each level has its own top level, the top level in the province, the top level in a city, the top level in a bureau, a system, and even a place is also a top level, because we often manage one line at a time. How this line works depends on this place to design, and then submit it for approval layer by layer. Therefore, it is the work of Party committees and governments at all levels to do a good job in top-level design. According to the new development concept, the top level involves how to innovate, how to coordinate, how to be green, how to be open, how to share, how to design the top level, and then how to implement it at the grass-roots level. Third, we should carry forward the requirements of "Three Stricts and Three Realities". Everything must be strict and practical. Only by being strict and practical, especially those who do not implement it, can all aspects of the requirements of the new development concept be implemented to the ground. Fourth, we should establish an incentive mechanism to make the implementation different, make the implementation more different from the implementation, encourage cadres, encourage enterprises, encourage all places to implement our development behavior in accordance with the new development concept, and make the new development concept become a new flower of development all over the country.

Moderator: Today, I would like to thank President Zhou for his detailed interpretation of the new development concept, so that we can better understand the essence of the new development concept. Thank you for sharing.

(Editor in charge: Zhao Jing, Qin Hua)