Forum focuses on future-oriented industry and new quality productive forces

Government officials, scientists, business leaders and experts shared views on identifying trend-setting new industries, how to give full play to innovative capacity, and the nurturing of new quality productive forces at the 2024 Shanghai International Public Relations Forum.

The forum, held in Pudong on Friday, was hosted by the Shanghai Public Relations Association, with support from municipal and district government departments.

Addressing the forum, Chen Jie, Shanghai's vice mayor, stressed the city's pivotal role in promoting the development of future industries, and in fostering new quality productive forces, in the national context. He also briefed participants on the city's achievements in scientific innovation and industrial upgrading.

Chen said the city, as a leader in China's reform and opening-up, and technological development, was one of the nation's first cities to envision its future industrial lineup, given its advantages in having a complete industrial system, its considerable scale in term of industries, and the room it could provide for practical applications of new technology.

The mayor pledged deepening integration between innovation and industry, as driven by the dual factors of projects and talents, in the city's endeavor to scale new heights in terms of future industries with a global impact.

In his speech, Sha Hailin, president of the public relations association, said that while future-oriented industries were a powerful engine leading to and promoting economic and social development, new quality productive forces were new forces of production born of technological revolution and industrial shakeup.

Sha encouraged experts in the public relations sector to give fuller play to their role in facilitating communication, mutual understanding, and coordination, to achieve extensive communication and cooperation in both the national and international context. These efforts would pave the way for future industries in terms of creating favorable public opinion and social ambience.

He said the recently forged alliance between public relations institutions in the Yangtze River Delta region pointed to huge potential in cooperation between different regions, and across different sectors.

Shi Yigong, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and president of Westlake University, after reviewing human history in fighting different diseases, summarized the major challenges confronting Chinese people in terms of health. For instance, each year in China, about 5 million citizens die of cardiovascular disease, 3 million succumb to cancer, and nearly 10 million are afflicted with Alzheimer's disease.

While major breakthroughs are taking place in tackling these once fatal diseases, in envisioning a bigger China role in pharmaceutical research, Shi stressed some factors crucial to innovative research in pharmaceuticals, particularly in terms of investment and policy support.

Attracting top talent would be vital to the effort.

Technological innovation vital to people's lives and health has been officially listed as a major direction in China's innovation drive.

The country now ranks second globally in terms of the use of medicines. While the pharmaceutical industry had registered significant progress, the sector still left much to be desired in term of original innovation.

For instance, of the 37 category I new drugs marketed in China from 2017 to 2020, only three could claim true originality in terms of their mechanisms.

Shi said phenomenal development in such aspects as machine learning, gene editing, or whole-genome sequencing are bringing revolutionary changes to medicine.

All this is happening against the background of AI development promising to result in disruptive changes not only to scientific progress in general, but also to the future of mankind.

Representatives from Corning Greater China, Liebherr (China) Co, Veolia China, and Voith Tubo China also shared their views on the interplay between technology and innovation, and business development.

Towards the end of the forum, Dong Guanpeng, vice chairman of China Public Relations Association, summarized why public relations research should strive to adapt to new changes and demands brought about by development in new quality productive forces.