National Bureau of Statistics: New progress has been made in building new quality production capabilities in the first quarter.

On April 16th, Mao Shengyong, deputy director of the National Bureau of Statistics, stated at a press conference of the State Council Information Office that promoting high-quality development must develop new productive forces tailored to local conditions. From the performance in the first quarter of this year, the construction of new productive forces has achieved new results. First, it is upscaling. High-end manufacturing and modern service industries are developing rapidly. China is advancing key core technology breakthroughs and layout in frontier areas throughout the entire chain. In the first quarter, the value added by high-tech manufacturing above a certain scale increased by 12.5% year-on-year, and the proportion further increased. Second, it is intelligentization. China has made breakthroughs in the commercialization and large-scale utilization of artificial intelligence. In March of this year, the daily call element usage exceeded 14 trillion, an increase of over 40% compared to the end of 2025. The development of artificial intelligence empowers various industries, driving rapid growth in related fields. In the first quarter, the value added by digital product manufacturing above a certain scale increased by 11.2% year-on-year. The value added in industries directly related to the production and application of artificial intelligence, such as the manufacture of electronic special materials and integrated circuits, increased by 32.5% and 49.4% respectively. The driving role of artificial intelligence has further extended to some upstream energy, raw materials, and chemical industries. Third, it is greening. The proportion of non-fossil energy consumption in energy consumption increased by 0.4 percentage points year-on-year in the first quarter. The development of green productive forces is good, and green trade is accelerating. In the first quarter, products such as lithium-ion batteries and wind turbines grew rapidly. The export of the "new three types" continued to grow rapidly. The development of China's new energy industry not only serves its own economic development but also contributes more Chinese strength to global green and low-carbon transformation. Fourth, it is new typification. The transformation of traditional industries to new ones is also an important content of new productive forces. In the first quarter, the pace of equipment renewal and technological improvement in traditional industries increased, with investment in equipment tools and instruments purchasing increasing by over 13% year-on-year. The transformation of the chemical industry, one of the main battlefields for pollution reduction and carbon reduction, has shown significant effects. In the above-scale chemical fiber industry, the contribution rate of the growth of the value added in the bio-based materials manufacturing industry increased by 14.4 percentage points year-on-year. The value added contribution of the above-scale biomass fuel processing industry also increased.