Focus Interview | Half Year Report: China's Strong Resilience and Vitality in the Economy | Growth | Economy
In the first half of 2023, China's overall economic performance rebounded and improved. The gross domestic product (GDP) increased by 5.5% year-on-year, significantly faster than the economic growth rate of 3% in 2022 and 4.5% in the first quarter. In the complex and severe external environment, China's economic growth rate is significantly faster than that of major developed economies in the world, demonstrating the strong resilience of China's economic development. Besides the increase in quantity, what other valuable aspects does this six-month transcript have? What is the trend and profound changes in the transformation of new and old driving forces in the Chinese economy?
With the arrival of summer vacation, people's enthusiasm for tourism has once again surged. From cultural tourism to catering and retail, the hot consumption scene has become a concentrated manifestation of China's steady economic recovery since 2023. In addition to the overall recovery of the consumer market in the first half of this year, the structure is also undergoing changes. In the first half of the year, the retail sales of rural consumer goods reached 3005.6 billion yuan, an increase of 8.4%, which was 0.3 percentage points faster than the retail sales of urban consumer goods. The national online retail sales reached 7162.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.1%. In addition, since the first half of this year, various promotional activities launched by e-commerce platforms have remained hot, and the trend of consumers pursuing high quality and personalization has become increasingly evident.
Fu Linghui, spokesperson for the National Bureau of Statistics and Director of the National Economic Comprehensive Statistics Department of the National Bureau of Statistics, said that in the first half of the year, the online retail sales of physical goods increased by 10.8% year-on-year, continuing to maintain the rapid growth of last year. Some new business models such as live streaming sales are also strengthening their driving effect on the consumer market. The driving force of economic growth is being optimized, and the quality of development is improving.
With the comprehensive restoration of normal economic and social operation, domestic demand is steadily recovering, and the domestic market has become a strong support for the Chinese economy to cope with wind and rain challenges and move towards high-quality development. Since the beginning of this year, China has fully played the fundamental role of consumption and the crucial role of investment, focusing on unleashing the potential of domestic demand. The logistics industry is a barometer of economic development, with one end connected to consumption and the other end connected to production. In Nanjing, truck driver Zhu Zhen received a significant increase in freight orders in the first half of this year compared to last year.
The growth of freight logistics directly reflects the steady recovery of the manufacturing industry. The data shows that in the first half of 2023, the national fixed assets investment increased by 3.8% year on year, of which the manufacturing investment increased by 6%. For freight driver Zhu Zhen, in addition to the growth of the production enterprise's own freight demand and the increase in order volume, he also benefited from the registration of a digital logistics smart platform this year. The platform accurately matches the freight demand of about 30000 enterprises and about 3 million truck drivers through algorithms, transforming the original search for goods from people to goods, greatly reducing the empty driving rate of trucks and greatly improving the logistics efficiency of production enterprises.
Liu Yunfei, President of China Logistics Group's Zhongchu Intelligent Transportation Strategy Research Institute: As a national digital logistics infrastructure platform, through a series of technical means and capabilities, we have reduced logistics costs for freight owners and enterprises on the platform. The comprehensive cost exceeds 10%, and reduced the search time for truck drivers by 69%. If logistics costs are reduced through a series of means, it is helping enterprises create profits.
The use of digital means to improve the efficiency of the logistics industry is a microcosm of the sustained development and growth of China's digital economy. In the first half of 2023, investment in new infrastructure construction increased by 16.2% year-on-year, with investment in information related new infrastructure such as 5G and data centers increasing by 13.1%. Investment in the electronic and communication equipment manufacturing industry and e-commerce service industry increased by 14.2% and 22.2% respectively. The added value of information transmission, software, and information technology services increased by 12.9%.
The rapid development of the new generation of information technology has also given rise to a number of new industries and formats. The artificial intelligence big model is a large and complex network system, similar to the human brain, where the more nodes and data there are, the stronger the processing ability. In June this year, the Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences released the latest generation of AI big model, which opened the channel of system recognition ability from perception, cognition to decision-making, thus expanding a wider range of application scenarios.
Since the beginning of this year, domestic technology companies, universities, and research institutions have released dozens of artificial intelligence large model products. At present, the scale of China's core artificial intelligence industry has reached 500 billion yuan, with over 4300 enterprises. China is actively laying out its artificial intelligence industry and competing on this "future track". With the increasing demand for artificial intelligence in various industries and fields, new models that deeply integrate with the real economy continue to emerge, forming a research and development system and application ecosystem with Chinese characteristics, leading various fields of the economy and society to leap from digitalization and networking to intelligence.
Tian Xuan, Vice Dean of the School of Finance at Wudaokou, Tsinghua University: The new generation of information technology is based on data elements and driven by the value of data. Our country has a very broad market with massive data, and we also have many application scenarios. In the future, we can make good use of the innovation of artificial intelligence technology to combine it with traditional industrial chains and industries to help them transform and upgrade. At the same time, we can also develop new application scenarios to improve service and coverage areas.
The digital and intelligent transformation driven by the new generation of information technology has not only spawned a series of new products and formats, but also provided strong support for manufacturing enterprises to reduce costs and increase efficiency.
In a warehouse of a company located in Liyang, Jiangsu, there are 50 intelligent pallet four-way vehicles and 34 intelligent handling robots shuttling and moving goods on flat ground and shelves 24 hours a day. Not only will there be no collision, but they can also cooperate with each other. The staff only need to input simple instructions, and they can accurately store and move a large amount of goods in the warehouse. In addition, the number and layout of four-way vehicles and robots can be dynamically adjusted according to the production needs of enterprises, which is the result of the deep integration of artificial intelligence algorithms and automation technology.
Innovation is the primary driving force for development. While China's manufacturing industry is undergoing digital transformation and upgrading, the trend towards high-end development is also becoming increasingly evident. In the first half of this year, the added value of industries above designated size in China increased by 3.8% year-on-year, of which the added value of equipment manufacturing industry increased by 6.5%, 2.7 percentage points faster than all industries above designated size. Investment in high-tech industries increased by 12.5%, and the driving and leading role of high-end manufacturing has become increasingly evident.
Tian Xuan, Vice Dean of the School of Finance at Wudaokou, Tsinghua University: In the first half of the year, our country's manufacturing investment, including growth, achieved gratifying results. Manufacturing is the economic lifeline of modern countries, especially high-end and advanced manufacturing, which is a very important lever to help our country achieve the transformation of old and new driving forces, and to help us achieve the transformation and upgrading of industrial and supply chains.
Following the first commercial passenger flight of the domestically produced C919 aircraft from Shanghai on May 28 this year, China Eastern Airlines officially took over the second domestically produced C919 aircraft in Shanghai on July 16. As the domestically produced aircraft achieved commercial navigation, its driving role in the upstream and downstream industrial chain gradually strengthened. In the first half of the year, the added value of the aerospace and equipment manufacturing industry above designated size increased by 22.9% year-on-year. Strengthen technological research and development in key areas and links such as semiconductors in all aspects, and achieve rapid growth in related production. In the first half of the year, the manufacturing of semiconductor device specific equipment and electronic components and electromechanical component equipment increased by 30.9% and 46.5% year-on-year, respectively.
Chen Yutao, Director of the Expert Committee of the Industrial and Information Technology Achievement Transformation Alliance: In the entire large manufacturing industry, only such industries can lead the upgrading and transformation of this round of industries through high-end manufacturing, strategic emerging industries, and high-tech industries. These international enterprises, which can become multinational corporations and global enterprises, actually occupy a core position in the entire industry chain. So based on the data, it is also very consistent with our country's overall policy guidelines and industry orientation.
On July 3rd this year, China's 20th millionth new energy vehicle was taken offline in Guangzhou. This marks a new stage of high-quality development for China's new energy vehicles, based on industrialization and marketization, in terms of scale and globalization. In the first half of this year, the production and sales of new energy vehicles in China reached 3.788 million and 3.747 million respectively, with year-on-year growth exceeding 40%. The new momentum of green development represented by new energy vehicles is particularly eye-catching in the latest semi annual economic report.
Fu Linghui, spokesperson for the National Bureau of Statistics and Director of the National Economic Comprehensive Statistics Department of the National Bureau of Statistics: New products represented by new energy vehicles, as well as solar cells and lithium batteries, saw a 61.6% increase in exports in the first half of this year. These all indicate that in promoting the green transformation, the synergistic effect with economic growth is constantly strengthening, laying a good foundation for future development and laying a good condition for China's sustainable economic development.
From factories to rural areas, from production to daily life, green transformation is now fully underway in China, becoming the most eye-catching background for high-quality economic development. Since the beginning of this year, a series of major projects related to carbon reduction have been put into operation, from China's first offshore carbon sequestration demonstration project, to Asia's largest thermal power carbon dioxide capture, utilization, and storage project, and then to the country's longest carbon dioxide transmission pipeline. China's "carbon reduction" work has steadily advanced. At the same time, China's energy structure is also continuously optimizing. The installed capacity of non fossil energy power generation accounts for 50.9% of the total installed capacity, historically exceeding that of fossil energy. In the past decade, China has supported an annual economic growth rate of 6.2% with an average annual energy consumption growth rate of 3%. China has become one of the countries with the fastest reduction in energy consumption intensity in the world.
Fu Linghui, spokesperson for the National Bureau of Statistics and Director of the National Economic Comprehensive Statistics Department of the National Bureau of Statistics, said that since the beginning of this year, green energy sources such as solar energy and wind power have continued to maintain rapid growth. We are also increasing our investment in this area, which plays a very important role in the green transformation of energy. At the same time, energy utilization efficiency is also improving, with a year-on-year decrease of 0.4% in energy consumption per unit of GDP in the first half of the year, indicating a significant improvement in energy conversion efficiency.
Chen Yutao, Director of the Expert Committee of the Industrial and Information Technology Achievement Transformation Alliance: In the clean energy industry, wind, solar, and hydrogen storage contain a very rich range of industry categories, ranging from every component to the main engine and station construction. Its industrial chain is very long. When developing new industries, China must be at the forefront of the world, and recent data shows that new energy vehicles and clean energy are indeed at the forefront of the world.
At present, the world political and economic situation is complex, and the foundation for sustained recovery and development of the domestic economy is still unstable. To promote high-quality development, many difficulties and challenges still need to be overcome. A 5.5% economic growth rate is not easy to come by. From optimizing consumption structure to digital transformation, from high-end manufacturing to green development, each indicator highlights that the high-quality development of the Chinese economy is more mature and resilient, making us more confident in the future prospects of the Chinese economy.
Editor | Gao Qi, Li Xiao, Li Dani
Camera | Fu Peng, Zheng Yukai, Cui Shanpeng
Editing | Zheng Yumiao Jialiang
