Chinese People's Bank of China Governor Pan Gongsheng's keynote speech at the 2026 China Development High-Level Forum

The improvement of China's industrial international competitiveness is first and foremost thanks to China's reform and opening up over the past 40 years. In the process of opening up to international partners, including the outstanding international companies present today, we learn from competition and grow through learning. At the same time, the following four factors play a very important role in enhancing China's industrial international competitiveness. - Massive market scale. Technological innovations can easily achieve industrialization, scale, commercialization, and rapid iteration, forming technological leadership and cost advantages. - Complete industrial chain and supply chain system. Industrial ecosystems, supply networks, research and development institutions, digital infrastructure, etc. efficiently gather and coordinate work in some regions. - Rich, high-quality, technically skilled, hardworking labor resources, especially in terms of technical talent. China has over 72 million high-skilled technical personnel, and the total number of research and development personnel has ranked first in the world for many years, making it a country with the largest and most comprehensive talent resources in the world. - Technological innovation capabilities brought about by continuous research and development investment. Over the past five years, China's annual growth in research and development funding has exceeded 10%. By 2025, China's total research and development funding will be second only to the United States, ranking second in the world; and the intensity of research and development investment will exceed the average level of OECD countries. Regarding the source of China's industrial international competitiveness, some international perceptions still linger on the notion that it is because the Chinese government provides unreasonable industrial subsidies. If there are such doubts, one can visit China more and have a better understanding of China's industries. As Premier Li Keqiang emphasized in his speech just now, China advocates fair, positive, and healthy competition. To address the "overheated" competition in some companies, the central government has taken measures to regulate the investment attraction behavior of local governments, prohibit unreasonable preferential policies related to taxation and land use, and establish a unified national market. Strict implementation of industrial, environmental, and other technical standards to restrict low-level competition. At the same time, the People's Bank of China guides financial institutions to scientifically assess risks and suppress financing of industries engaging in "overheated" competition from a financial perspective. These efforts have achieved relatively good results. The decline in China's Producer Price Index (PPI) has narrowed from -3.6% in July of last year to -0.9% in February of this year, and there have been improvements in business operations for companies.