Themed "No Future Without Technological Innovation", the 2021 New Year Forum of Fudan University School of Management focused on the strongest momentum for the industrial development, providing deep insight into the trend of technological innovation as well as the Chinese economy.
Guest speaker Dr. Shao Yu, Chief Economist at Orient Securities and Assistant to the President, analyzed the changes brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, interpreted the "Technological Innovation + Dual Circulation" strategies, then revealed five fields of opportunities in the post-pandemic era.
Dr. Shao pointed out that the pandemic has made impacts on technological innovation mainly in two ways:
1. Producing asset price bubbles. During the prevention and control of this pandemic, flooding the market with liquidity has been a common practice around the world, which has brought about bubbles in asset prices. For example, the Bitcoin price even surpassed $40,000 for some time.
2. Challenges of Globalization. This pandemic is likely to put an end to the relatively harmonious globalization as we know it. Strategic interactions concerning technology, finance, currency, etc. among large economies will only become more and more intense.
As a response to changes in the external environment, the government has put forward the "dual circulation" strategies, suggesting that the resources of the domestic market must be fully leveraged, yet we will continue to open up and cooperate with the international market.
How to interpret the "Technological Innovation + Dual Circulation" strategies
We are about to witness the Industrial Revolution 4.0, whose driving force will be "ABCD (AI, Blockchain, Cloud, Data) + new energy revolution". A variety of application scenarios and demands for new infrastructure will be generated, which will then give birth to companies with high market value.
Therefore, the most urgent task for China is to strengthen talent training, improve the technological innovation capabilities of the enterprises, and establish an effective incentive mechanism to reward technological innovations.
Dr. Shao emphasized that the essence of the dual circulation is to upgrade our products in the technological aspect, so as to make them all the more refined and innovative, and gradually expand the market to the whole world.
Therefore, to carry out the "technological innovation + dual circulation" strategies is essentially to create more market-added value for our product through technological upgrading, so as to promote our technology and culture around the world, and realize the grand transformation from “made in China” to "invented” or “developed” by Chinese enterprises.
Major opportunities in the post-pandemic era
Dr. Shao drew our attention to the phenomenon that from 1990 to 2010, most of the top companies in the world were financial investment institutions, telecommunication operators and hardware manufacturers; while the recent ten years have seen a skyrocketing growth in internet software companies. The reason of course lies in the birth and popularization of mobile smart terminals with internet access.
To discover the fields of opportunity in the future, we must start with the driving force of the imminent industrial revolution, the “ABCD + new energy revolution” as mentioned before. Meanwhile, under the impact of the pandemic, innovation in biomedical technology has also gained unprecedented importance. Dr. Shao shared his opinion in the most promising fields in the future:
1. Internet industry and smart technologies.
2. Fields related to human maintenance, such as medical care, aesthetic medicine, biotechnology etc.
3. New infrastructure. For instance, 5G network will not only speed up downloading, but will also enhance interconnectivities and will become the central nervous system of the future world.
4. Fields related to import substitution and building independent controllable industrial chains. The technology competition in the future will become all the more intense, so we must build our core technology and make great breakthroughs.
5. ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) investing. The harmonious coexistence between human beings and nature has gained greater importance. Green growth, corporate social responsibility and corporate governance will become a significant part of the core competitiveness of an enterprise.
