China National Radio:
My question is about developing new quality productive forces. The central government highly values fostering and developing new quality productive forces. Could you provide an update on the progress made in the first quarter by emerging sectors, high-tech manufacturing and green energy products?
Sheng Laiyun:
Thank you for your question. As you just said, the central government highly values the fostering and development of new quality productive forces, which have been a key focus in both last year's Central Economic Work Conference and this year's government work report. Party committees and government departments from various localities have put forward a series of policy measures to support enterprise innovation in an effort to foster and develop new quality productive forces.
From the data for the first quarter, we can see positive outcomes from these policies. The new quality productive forces are showing encouraging results across various industries, operational activities and products. Let me share some specific data:
Emerging industries have maintained accelerated development. In Q1, the value added of high-tech manufacturing above designated size grew by 7.5% year on year, or 2.6 percentage points higher than Q4 last year. The high-tech service sector also maintained a rapid growth trajectory, with the value added in information transmission, software and information technology services growing by 13.7%, which is 2.5 percentage points higher than in Q4 of last year. We've also seen fast-paced development in new industries and a rapid increase in new products. Particularly, the production of new energy vehicles grew by 29.2% in Q1 on top of several years of high growth. Solar battery production increased by 20.1%, and products related to photovoltaics such as polycrystalline and single crystalline silicon saw growth rates exceeding 50%. Service robots increased by 26.7%, and industries such as semiconductors and 3D printing maintained double-digit growth. New products continue to emerge and sustain high growth rates.
Furthermore, new business models continue to emerge with strong growth. Driven by the ongoing development and application of big data, the internet and the Internet of Things, we are seeing a transformation in production methods and the continued rise of new business forms. Areas such as live-streaming and instant retail are particularly vibrant. Online retail sales, reflecting new business model trends, grew by 11.6% in Q1, continuing the trend of double-digit growth from previous years.
In addition, new investments and infrastructure projects maintain good development momentum. In the first quarter, investment in high-tech industries increased by 11.4% year on year, which was 1.1 percentage points higher than that of last year, and investment in high-tech service industries grew by 12.7%. Additionally, the construction of a batch of new infrastructure projects is accelerating, including 5G base stations. As of the end of February, 132,000 new 5G base stations have been added, bringing the total number to over 3.5 million. The implementation of new infrastructure projects, such as the Eastern Data and Western Computing project and optical fiber communications, is also being accelerated. The digital economy is an important aspect of new quality productive forces. The central and local governments attach great importance to the development of the digital economy and are accelerating the digital transformation of traditional industries and the development of the digital industry. The estimated value added of core industries of the digital economy is expected to exceed 12 trillion yuan in 2023, accounting for around 10% of GDP.
As we can see from the data in these areas, new quality productive forces are being continuously cultivated and developed under the high attention of local governments as well as various ministries during the transformation and upgrading of enterprises. Next, we must continue to accelerate the cultivation and development of new quality productive forces, as they are the greatest driving force and the best focus for China's economic transformation and high-quality development. Therefore, we must plan comprehensively and take into account local conditions. While upgrading and transforming traditional industries, we should also accelerate the cultivation of emerging and future industries to strengthen and expand new quality productive forces. Thank you.
Shou Xiaoli:
Due to time constraints, we will take two final questions.
