'Tiered development of innovative enterprises' to boost China's quality productive forces in 2025

China will focus on advancing new industrialization and integrating sci-tech and industrial innovation as part of efforts to boost new quality productive forces this year, according to an official at the ongoing China Development Forum 2025 in Beijing.

This year's forum, scheduled from March 23 to 24, is themed "Unleashing Development Momentum for Stable Growth of Global Economy."

Li Lecheng, the Party secretary of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), said when attending the forum that China will increase its high-quality scientific and technological supply in 2025, which includes implementing high-quality development actions for key manufacturing industry chains and planning new major national science and technology projects in emerging fields such as humanoid robots and atomic-level manufacturing.

China will also encourage and support foreign companies to establish research and development centers in the country and collaborate with domestic firms on technological research, providing a "source of power" for global innovation while emphasizing the strengthened role of enterprises in scientific and technological innovation, he said.

"We will advance the tiered development of innovative enterprises, promote the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that use specialized and sophisticated technologies to produce novel and unique products, push the development of unicorn and gazelle companies, and actively support foreign companies in innovating and starting businesses in China. These efforts will enable more enterprises to surge ahead in new areas and arenas," said Li.

In terms of institutional reform, China will introduce implementation opinions to promote the high-quality development of the science and technology service industry. It will also promote the construction of national technology trading service platforms and national-level manufacturing pilot-scale platforms, fostering specialized technology transfer institutions through market-based mechanisms, he said.

Foreign companies will be supported in participating in the transformation of achievements and in innovation and entrepreneurship platforms, Li said, stressing that the country's goal is to accelerate the transfer of advanced technologies, products, and solutions to China, translating more innovative achievements into real productivity.

China will also continue to optimize the business environment for innovation, he said.

"We will steadily expand institutional opening up in terms of rules, regulations, management, and standards. We will promote the accelerated flow of innovative elements such as finance, talent, and data on a global scale. We will deepen collaborative innovation among industry, universities, and research, and accelerate the construction of several open and diverse innovation 'small ecosystems' to jointly foster the 'large ecosystem' of global integrated development," said Li.

'Tiered development of innovative enterprises' to boost China's quality productive forces in 2025

The Chinese Embassy in South Africa on Monday held an event in Pretoria, the country's administrative capital, to celebrate the launch of the 2026 China-Africa Year of People-to-People Exchanges.

This year also marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and African countries.

Chinese Ambassador to South Africa Wu Peng said that over the past seven decades, under the joint guidance of leaders from both sides, China-Africa people-to-people and cultural exchanges have continued to expand, yielding fruitful outcomes.

Noting that the world is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century, Wu said China and Africa need to uphold fairness and justice, strengthen solidarity and mutual assistance, and enhance exchanges and cooperation more than ever before.

Taking the launch of the China-Africa Year of People-to-people Exchanges as an opportunity, Wu called for upholding the original aspiration of friendship, solidifying the foundation of cooperation, enhancing two-way efforts, and accelerating the building of an all-weather China-Africa community with a shared future for the new era.

Mmapaseka Steve Letsike, South Africa's deputy minister of women, youth, and persons with disabilities, said South Africa and China enjoy strong and historic bonds of friendship as close international cooperation partners in the political, economic, social, technical and multilateral domains.

"The significance of people-to-people is really about how we elevate the people's life to a just and equitable stance that we want to see. We want a better Africa; we want a better world. And that for us is significant," said Letsike.

"Through people-to-people exchanges, we promote mutual understanding, and that is the basis of building mutual trust, building peaceful coexistence. People-to-people exchange is a very important instrument for peace and mutual understanding," said Bongani Maimele, director of international relations with South Africa's National School of Government.

The opening ceremony of the 2026 China-Africa Year of People-to-People Exchanges was held at the African Union headquarters on Jan 8. According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, the two sides will jointly host nearly 600 cultural and people-to-people exchange activities in 2026 to enhance exchanges and mutual learning between the two civilizations, and promote mutual understanding and connection between the peoples.

Organizing the 2026 China-Africa Year of People-to-People Exchanges is an important consensus reached by leaders from both sides at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Beijing Summit in 2024.

Chinese Embassy in South Africa unveils 2026 China-Africa Year of People-to-People Exchanges