Using common sense in economics, talk about the significance of technological innovation to international competition?

1. Building an innovative country is an inevitable requirement for building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way

Science and technology are the primary productive forces, the concentrated expression and main symbol of advanced productive forces, and the basis for the progress of human civilization. Fundamental motivation. The four main goals of building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way are all closely related to the development of science and technology. To optimize the industrial structure, improve economic efficiency, and enhance comprehensive national strength and international competitiveness, we must rely on scientific and technological progress; improve socialist democracy, improve the socialist legal system, and promote scientific and democratic decision-making, requiring the majority of leading cadres to adhere to the scientific spirit of seeking truth and pragmatism. and scientific attitude, master basic scientific methods and rich scientific and technological knowledge; improving the ideological and moral quality, scientific and cultural quality and health quality of the whole nation requires us to strengthen the popularization of science and technology and strive to form a learning society in which all people learn and lifelong learning ; Improving the ecological environment, increasing resource utilization efficiency, and promoting the harmonious coexistence between man and nature must also be based on the full development and extensive utilization of science and technology. At present, the increasingly fierce international scientific and technological competition, the increasingly intensified intellectual property monopoly and the increasingly serious energy resource constraints have posed severe challenges to our country's practice of building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way. We have reached a point where we must rely more on strengthening independent innovation capabilities and It is a historical stage to improve the quality of workers and promote economic and social development.

From the perspective of the international situation, since the end of World War II, many countries have been exploring development paths to industrialization and modernization from different starting points. Some countries with rich oil reserves in the Middle East mainly rely on natural resources to obtain wealth. Some countries in Latin America mainly rely on the capital, market and technology of developed countries to develop industrialization. However, more than 20 major developed countries such as the United States and Japan regard technological innovation as a Based on the basic development strategy, China has gained outstanding competitive advantages in the world market and has become an innovative country recognized by the world. The research and development investment of these developed countries generally accounts for more than 2% of their GDP, the contribution rate of scientific and technological progress to the economy is more than 70%, and the dependence on foreign technology mostly remains below 30%. In order to strengthen market competitiveness and highlight competitive advantages, they attach great importance to promoting enterprises to research and develop patented technologies with independent intellectual property rights, and on this basis, form their own brands and standards, so that enterprises with famous brand products, advanced technologies and independent intellectual property rights Be bigger and stronger and develop into an internationally competitive multinational company. Strengthening the protection of intellectual property rights, consolidating the monopoly status of multinational operating enterprises, and safeguarding the excess monopoly profits behind intellectual property rights have become powerful weapons for Western developed countries to strengthen their own strength and curb competitors. In the international market, it is not only difficult to introduce key technologies related to national defense and security, but also cutting-edge technologies related to leading industries and equipment manufacturing industry. Facts have proven time and again that real core technology cannot be bought. To achieve the goal of building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way, we must rely on our own strength to establish an independent innovative technology development system and promote the leap-forward development of industrial technology.

From the perspective of domestic economic and social development, since the reform and opening up, our country's economy has maintained a stable and rapid growth of more than 9% per year for 26 consecutive years, and has achieved great achievements that have attracted worldwide attention. But at the same time, we must also note that our country is still a developing country. Although its economic aggregate is large, its per capita income level is low, its resources are very scarce, and there are still some outstanding contradictions and problems in its economic and social development. Overall, there has been no fundamental change in the fact that my country's economic growth relies heavily on high investment in capital, the situation in which it relies heavily on high consumption of resources has not fundamentally changed, the situation in which it relies heavily on imported technology has not fundamentally changed, and the situation in which some core and key technologies are controlled by others has not fundamentally changed. Fundamental change. According to estimates, my country's current dependence on foreign technology is as high as 50%, more than 60% of equipment investment relies on imports, and the contribution rate to scientific and technological progress is only about 39%. Because we do not master the core technology, we have to spend 20% of the selling price of each domestic mobile phone, 30% of the selling price of computers, and 20%-40% of the selling price of CNC machine tools to pay patent fees to foreign patent holders.

Research shows that if the investment rate remains at the current high level of 40%, to achieve the goal of quadrupling GDP, the contribution rate of scientific and technological progress must increase by another 20 percentage points based on the current level, reaching more than 60%. This requires us to further increase investment in research and development, greatly improve our independent innovation capabilities, strive to master core and key technologies with independent intellectual property rights, and promote the strategic transformation of economic growth from resource-driven and capital-driven to innovation-driven. The soon-to-be-released "Outline of the National Medium and Long-term Science and Technology Development Plan" clearly sets out the goal of my country entering the ranks of innovative countries by 2020, turning my country's economic and social development to rely mainly on scientific and technological progress, and striving to find a path with Chinese characteristics. This is also the reason for the road of independent innovation.

2. Cultivating a large number of innovative talents is the key to building an innovative country

The most important thing for a country to prosper is to have people. The key to enhancing independent innovation capabilities, building an innovative country, and building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way is talent. This requires us to change our concept of resource development from focusing on developing natural resources to focusing on developing human resources. Historically, the relationship between humans and nature has gone through a tortuous process from reverence for nature to understanding, utilizing, "conquering" nature, transforming nature, and then back to harmonious coexistence between man and nature and the pursuit of sustainable development. In this process, people have become increasingly aware that natural resources are limited, but human intellectual resources are unlimited. Numerous facts have proved that human resources are the primary resource that will never be exhausted. They are the source of economic growth and the stamina of economic development. In the history of world economic development, there are many examples of companies resurrecting and rejuvenating due to the correct use of talents, such as Jacocca of Chrysler in the United States and Gerstner of IBM. A senior executive from the world-famous management consulting firm McKinsey & Company once said, "In a knowledge-based economy, the most important thing is talent. Those who win the talent win the world." The boss of Apple in the United States also publicly claimed: "I used to I often think that one outstanding person can be worth two mediocre employees, but now I think it can be worth 50. "It can be seen that investment in human resources is a strategic investment, and the rate of return on this investment is very high.

Precisely because human resources are a strategic resource, the competition for innovative scientific and technological talents has increasingly become the focus of international competition. The search for the best and brightest talents has evolved into a protracted battle. , an extremely fierce global battle. The core of the competition for technology and intellectual property rights is the competition for human intellectual resources, and the competition for scientific and technological talents as the carrier of human intellectual resources. The more qualified, high-level and outstanding professional talents, the higher the frequency of international mobility and the more intense the competition among countries. At present, developed countries have generally increased their efforts to search, attract, and utilize talents around the world, making the shortage of talents in developing countries even more serious. Statistics show that an average of 17,000 scientific and technological professionals around the world settle directly in the United States every year, 168,000 scientific and technological talents go to work in the United States through H-1B temporary visas, and 183,000 foreign students enter American universities. The world’s scientific and technological immigrants More than 40% end up in the United States. In contrast, developing countries are at an extremely disadvantageous position in the global competition for talent. A large number of scientific and technological talents who have received higher education in their own countries continue to flow into developed countries and regions such as the United States, Japan, and Europe. Taking my country as an example, among the 700,200 people who studied abroad between 1978 and 2003, the return rate was less than 30%.

The global competition for talents requires us to cultivate, attract, retain and use talents with an international perspective, and create a good institutional mechanism and social environment to allow innovative talents with potential Be able to stand out and play a full role in various undertakings of the party and the country. The outstanding problems we face now in cultivating innovative talents are: first, some scientific and technological personnel lack the spirit of innovation and cannot truly break through their predecessors and make progress. Second, a large number of high-level researchers are concentrated in universities and scientific research institutes, and enterprises are extremely short of qualified engineering and technical personnel, especially high-level engineers.

According to our survey, 67% of China's scientific and technological workers are concentrated in public institutions, 17.3% work in state-owned enterprises and collectively owned enterprises, and nearly 16% work in "foreign-funded" enterprises and private non-enterprise units. Such a structural defect directly affects the gathering of innovative talents and the improvement of enterprises' independent innovation capabilities. Third, mass technological innovation activities are not deep enough and long-lasting. Activities such as small inventions, small creations, small innovations, and small suggestions that once produced fruitful results in China have also lost their former glory in many places. The cultivation of innovative talents has The mass base for growth and development needs to be strengthened and consolidated urgently.

Innovation is multi-level, including original innovation carried out by scientific research institutes, technological innovation carried out by enterprises, and mass innovation activities carried out by workers and farmers. Innovative talents are also multi-faceted and can be found in all fields and levels of society. Only a country that mobilizes innovative talents from all walks of life to participate extensively, carries out innovation activities in the whole society, and can fully utilize the results of innovation can be a truly innovative country. Without a large number of comprehensively developed high-quality innovative talents, building an innovative country is empty talk. At present, we must focus on strengthening the construction of innovative talent teams at three levels: First, strengthen the construction of professional and technical talent teams and accelerate the cultivation of innovative scientific and technological talents, especially innovative leading talents with young and middle-aged people as the main body. Data show that at present, my country's human resources only account for about 5.7% of the total human resources, and high-level talents only account for about 5.5% of the total human resources. Even among high-level human resources, top talents who can grasp the world's scientific frontiers and make major scientific and technological innovations are extremely scarce; secondly, we need to strengthen the construction of party and government talents and enterprise management talents so that more talents can emerge from the land of China. Modern entrepreneurs like Haier Zhang Ruimin, Huawei Ren Zhengfei, Chery Yin Tongyao, and Geely Li Shufu who dare to challenge the world's leading companies and closely link the fate of the company with the development of the country have launched more Chinese brands in the world market; the third is to strengthen Build a team of highly skilled talents and rural practical talents, and cultivate a large number of Xu Zhenchao, Bao Qifan-style worker experts and local talents in the modernization drive. With such a large-scale and well-structured innovative talent team, we have a strong talent guarantee to build an innovative country and achieve the grand goal of building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way.

3. Improving the scientific quality of the entire population is an important social foundation for the emergence of innovative talents

Innovative talents are the backbone of the nation and are deeply rooted in the excellent spiritual and cultural traditions of a nation. It should be rooted in national groups with high comprehensive quality and good scientific quality, and in a good institutional environment with strong incentives and appropriate rewards and punishments. Strengthen the construction of the scientific and technological team, improve the talent incentive mechanism, and strive to form a scientific and technological talent team with both ability and political integrity, a reasonable structure, and excellent quality. This must be based on the substantial improvement of the scientific quality of the majority of workers and strive to create a society in which innovative talents emerge in large numbers. environment. Without a large public group that loves science, pays attention to science and technology, and has a high level of scientific literacy, there will be no good situation for innovative talents to emerge in large numbers, and independent innovation will lose its source and motivation. The level of table tennis in our country has long been leading the world because we have a deep mass foundation and can continue to explore and innovate on the basis of inheriting and carrying forward excellent traditions. Therefore, improving the scientific quality of citizens must be considered in a strategic position related to the overall situation. By carrying out science and technology education, dissemination and popularization activities, we must strive to create a good atmosphere that encourages innovation, encourages excellence, respects individuality, tolerates failure, and cultivates independent thinking. , the spirit of rational judgment, and continuously enhance the public’s awareness and ability to innovate.

For citizens to have scientific literacy, they first need to understand basic scientific and technological knowledge, master basic scientific methods, establish scientific ideas, advocate scientific spirit, and have certain application of scientific knowledge and scientific methods to deal with practical problems and participate in Ability to handle public affairs. Only when citizens have basic scientific qualities can they discover, analyze, and solve problems with a pragmatic scientific spirit, scientific attitude, and scientific methods, obtain innovative results, and promote social progress.

Surveys show that the scientific literacy of our country's citizens is still relatively low. In 2003, the number of people with basic scientific literacy only accounted for 1.98% of the total population, and the number of rural residents was as low as 0.7%, which is far from the 17% reached in the United States in 2001. Very far. The working-age population's low scientific literacy and lack of self-protection knowledge not only make it difficult to adapt to the needs of modernization, but are also one of the important reasons for the occurrence of some major safety production accidents. The natural gas leakage accident in Kaixian, Chongqing and the explosion accident at Jilin Petrochemical were both caused by the lowest-level operating errors. The low scientific quality of citizens has become a major factor affecting the improvement of productivity levels and seriously restricts the generation and growth of innovative talents.

Improving the scientific quality of citizens is a cause of the whole society and requires the joint efforts of all sectors of society. In order to meet the needs of promoting socialist economic construction, political construction, cultural construction, and social construction, the Party Central Committee timely proposed that improving the scientific and cultural quality of all people should be one of the goals of building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way. In accordance with the unified deployment of the central government, the Chinese Association for Science and Technology, together with 13 departments including the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Science and Technology, formulated the "Outline of the Action Plan for National Scientific Literacy", which clearly proposed to vigorously strengthen the construction of scientific literacy among citizens. Promote the all-round development of the economy, society and people, and lay a solid human resource foundation for improving comprehensive national strength, building a well-off society in an all-round way, and realizing the strategic goals of the third step of modernization. The "Outline of the Action Plan for National Scientific Literacy" will focus on the current key groups and key links that affect the improvement of the scientific and cultural quality of the entire nation, and actively carry out four major action plans: First, implement the scientific literacy action for minors, and improve school scientific literacy through Education quality, carry out various forms of science popularization activities, enhance primary and secondary school students' interest and hobby in science and technology, and cultivate innovative spirit and practical ability; second, implement farmers' scientific quality action to improve farmers' acquisition of scientific and technological knowledge and rely on science and technology to get rid of poverty and develop production and the ability to improve the quality of life, improve the ability of rural surplus labor to transfer employment to non-agricultural industries and cities, and build a new socialist countryside with "developing production, affluent life, civilized rural customs, neat village appearance, and democratic management"; the third is to implement The scientific quality action of the urban labor population improves the learning ability, vocational skills and technological innovation capabilities of employees in the secondary and tertiary industries, improves the vocational skills level and ability of migrant workers in cities to adapt to urban life, and lays the foundation for taking a new industrialization path and developing modern services. The fourth is to implement scientific quality actions for leading cadres and civil servants, promote scientific spirit, promote scientific attitude, pay attention to scientific methods, and enhance the ability of scientific decision-making and scientific management.

In line with these four major action plans, during the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" period, we will also implement scientific education and training, science popularization resource development and *** in response to the outstanding problems of weak science popularization infrastructure and weak support capabilities. Four basic projects, including sharing, mass media science and technology communication capacity building, and science popularization infrastructure construction, create a social science popularization platform, strengthen science popularization capabilities, and provide strong support and guarantee for improving the scientific and cultural quality of the whole people