Guo Chaoxian, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences: Why should we promote large-scale equipment updates?

XiJinpingThe general secretary pointed out that "accelerating product replacement is an important measure to promote high-quality development. We must encourage and guide a new round of large-scale equipment updates and the replacement of old consumer goods with new ones." Since the beginning of this year, the State Council has issued the "Action Plan to Promote Large-scale Equipment Renewal and the Swap of Consumer Goods", the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other departments have issued the "Implementation Plan to Promote Equipment Renewal in the Industrial Sector", and the State Administration for Market Regulation and other departments have issued the "Upgrading Traction Equipment Renewal with Standards and the Action Plan for the Swap of Old Goods", the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance have issued the "Several Measures to Strengthen Support Large-scale Equipment Renewal and the Swap of Old Goods", Relevant policy standards have been continuously improved. Large-scale equipment renewal can not only promote consumption and stimulate investment, but also increase advanced production capacity and improve production efficiency. It is of great significance for accelerating the construction of a modern industrial system and promoting high-quality development. This can be deeply understood from the following aspects.

The need to expand investment scale and optimize investment structure. Investment, consumption and net exports are the "troika" that drives economic growth. Promoting large-scale equipment renewal is an important measure to expand effective investment and stimulate economic growth. The implementation of large-scale equipment renewal will promote large-scale investment of capital by enterprises, the government will increase public investment, drive social capital to increase investment, and stimulate investment growth in the whole society. In 2023, the scale of equipment investment in key areas such as industry in my country will be approximately 4.9 trillion yuan. As the demand for equipment renewal continues to expand, it is expected to form a huge market with an annual scale of more than 5 trillion yuan. Promote the renewal of equipment in key industries around new industrialization, accelerate the renewal of equipment in infrastructure around new urbanization, and vigorously promote the renewal of equipment in agriculture, transportation, logistics, education, culture and tourism, medical and other fields, which will not only help expand the scale of effective investment, but also It is conducive to optimizing the investment structure and promoting the continuous increase in the proportion of advanced production capacity. Driven by the large-scale equipment renewal policy, in the first half of this year, national investment in equipment, tools and equipment purchase increased by 17.3% year-on-year, contributing 54.8% to total investment growth, driving total investment growth by 2.1 percentage points. From January to July, investment in technological transformation in the manufacturing industry increased by 10.9%, continuing to maintain double-digit growth, faster than total investment by 7.3 percentage points.

The need to accelerate the cultivation and development of new productive forces. Marx called the tools of production mechanical means of labor and called the sum of them the skeletal system and muscle system of production. Production tools are a symbol of the development level of productivity and a powerful force in promoting social progress. New quality productivity is the quality of advanced productivity that conforms to the new development concept. It is born of revolutionary technological breakthroughs, innovative allocation of production factors, and deep industrial transformation and upgrading. It takes the leap of workers, labor materials, labor objects and their optimized combinations as the basic connotation. my country's traditional industries are large in size, accounting for more than 80% of the manufacturing industry. Large-scale equipment renewal will accelerate the elimination of old equipment, the application of advanced equipment, and process optimization, promote technological upgrades, production capacity optimization, structural adjustment, innovation and transformation, and promote the high-end, intelligent, and green development of manufacturing. This will promote new types of labor objects and new labor materials continue to emerge, providing strong support for cultivating and developing new productive forces, and thus promoting high-quality economic development.

The need to promote energy conservation and emission reduction and achieve the "double carbon" goal. Achieving carbon peak and carbon neutrality is China's solemn commitment to the international community and an extensive and profound economic and social change. Our country is the world's largest manufacturing country. Industrial energy consumption accounts for about 70% of the total energy consumption of society, and industrial carbon emissions account for more than half of the total emissions of society. The industrial sector is the main battlefield for energy conservation and carbon reduction, and is crucial to achieving the "double carbon" goal. Improving the application standards of equipment in terms of energy consumption and emissions, eliminating polluting and energy-consuming old equipment, and introducing new equipment that is digital, intelligent, green and intensive is an important goal of this large-scale equipment update. Through large-scale equipment renewal, actively promote green production capacity to replace backward production capacity, and continue to increase the proportion of advanced production capacity and high-efficiency products, which will promote the continuous improvement of energy conservation and carbon reduction levels from the source, promote the improvement of the green manufacturing system, enhance the driving force for industrial green transformation, and accelerate the realization of the green and low-carbon transformation of the industrial structure will help achieve the "double carbon" goal.

The implementation of large-scale equipment updates must be carried out in the direction of promoting high-end, digitalization, greening and security of the industry. Vigorously implement advanced equipment renewal actions, guide enterprises to eliminate backward and inefficient equipment in accordance with laws and regulations, introduce and apply high-end advanced equipment, update and upgrade test and testing equipment, and improve production efficiency and technical level. Vigorously implement digital transformation actions, promote the application of intelligent manufacturing equipment, accelerate the construction of smart factories, strengthen the construction of digital infrastructure, adhere to the integrated update of software and hardware, and while promoting hardware equipment updates, pay attention to iterative upgrades and innovative applications of software systems. Vigorously implement green equipment promotion actions, accelerate the green transformation of production equipment, promote energy efficiency upgrades of key energy-using equipment, accelerate the application of solid waste treatment and water-saving equipment, and achieve the basic withdrawal of production capacity below the energy efficiency benchmark level in key industries and the basic energy efficiency of major energy-using equipment. Energy saving level. Vigorously implement actions to improve the intrinsic safety level, promote the safety transformation of old petrochemical and chemical equipment, improve the intrinsic safety level of the civil explosives industry, promote the application of advanced and applicable safety equipment, and achieve a significant improvement in the intrinsic safety level.

The author is from the Chinese Academy of Social SciencesXiJinpingSpecial researcher at the Research Center for Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and director of the Industrial Organization Office of the Institute of Industrial Economics