The 2020 CCTV annual education festival "Cloud Ecology Talking about the Future" was held in Beijing this afternoon. Many guests came to the event site to explore the new ecology of education and take the pulse of the new trend of future education development. Wu Xiaoqiu, Chairman of Higher Education Professional Committee of China Education Development Strategy Society, Dean of China Capital Market Research Institute, First-class Professor of Finance and former Vice President of China Renmin University, attended the ceremony and delivered a keynote speech entitled "Rooting in China and Cultivating Modern Talents with Ideality, Responsibility and International Vision in the New Era".
The full text of the speech is as follows:
Education is the foundation of a strong country. Education is also the cornerstone of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. "Education makes the country strong and education makes the country prosperous" is not a slogan, but it is real.
Looking back over the past 40 years of reform and opening up, we will find the importance of education and talents. In 1978, the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was successfully convened, which started the process of modernization in China. The historic speeches of the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Party and Comrade Deng Xiaoping’s "Emancipate the Mind, Seek Truth from Facts, Look Forward with Unity" have promoted the social changes in China. Over the past 40 years, China has gone from a poor and backward country to a well-off society as a whole.
In 1978, China’s per capita GDP was just over $100, and it will obviously exceed $10,000 by 2020. From the per capita GDP of more than 100 US dollars to more than 10,000 US dollars today, this is a miracle of human society and a great contribution made by China to human society.
The most important reason is that we persist in the reform and opening up and the socialist market economy. Among them, the great contribution of higher education in China to the realization of a well-off society in China cannot be ignored.
Many people judge a country’s higher education by whether it wins the Nobel Prize or not. I don’t think this is comprehensive, accurate and correct. China’s higher education has trained tens of millions of talents, including scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, civil servants and builders of every industry in the past 40 years, which has made great contributions.
The talents trained over the past 40 years have several characteristics: the first is that they have an international perspective. Focusing on the future, it knows where China will go in the future and can grasp the future trend. The second is the spirit of responsibility. The spirit of responsibility was particularly evident in the last three sessions in the late 1970s and those in the early 1980s. In 1980s, China society was an era of great ideological emancipation, which gave birth to a group of elites in today’s society. They knew their responsibilities. The most important thing in ideological emancipation was to grasp their responsibilities, put their own interests at a very low level, and put social responsibilities at a very high level. Therefore, there was a heartfelt slogan at that time, called rejuvenating China. This is not organized, it is heartfelt and spontaneous. Today, this generation has become the mainstay of this society.
Our future, from 2020 to 2035, the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee described the vision and goal of 2035, which is to build our country into a moderately developed country, from a well-off society in an all-round way to a moderately developed country. This is an extremely grand goal. As a teacher who studies economics and finance, I have carefully read the communiqué of the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee, as well as the suggestions on the 14th Five-Year Plan and the long-term goals for 2035. What excites me most is that the per capita GDP will reach the level of moderately developed countries by 2035. Judging from the economic indicators, developed countries have a single indicator, that is, the per capita GDP reaches 12,400 US dollars, which is the lowest threshold of OECD. Of course, it is only a threshold. If you want to become a developed country, you obviously have to meet various cultural, social, legal, regular and spiritual requirements.
There are 31 developed countries in the world, of course, many of them exceed $12,400, but they are not listed as developed countries because they are not good in other aspects. Environmental conditions, whether men and women are equal, if men and women are not equal, you can hardly say that this is a developed country. If the environment is very bad, the public security is very bad and the order is very chaotic, it is not a country ruled by law, and no matter how high the per capita GDP is, it is not a developed country. Based on culture, society and the rule of law, the requirements are very high, with a total of only 31. Moreover, we have to reach the level of moderately developed countries, which is now more than 10 thousand dollars. According to such a requirement, I calculate that by 2035, we should reach the level of per capita GDP close to 25 thousand dollars, which may be called the economic index of moderately developed countries by current standards. At the same time, in the humanities, society, environment, the rule of law and other aspects, we should comprehensively promote the modernization of China society, including the modernization of state governance, which are among the connotations of moderately developed countries.
There are still 15 years from today to 2035, and the complexity of the difficulties we may face in these 15 years may exceed that in the past 40 years. Because today’s international environment has become very complicated, how can we deal with it? It is necessary not only to promote economic development, but also to cope with the changes in the complex international environment. Therefore, in this process, new requirements are put forward for the talent training of higher education in China.
In the process of moving from a well-off level to a moderately developed country, we have to overcome a major trap, which is called the "middle income" trap. The so-called "middle income" trap is that it is difficult for some emerging economies and some countries to cross the threshold of $12,400 in the process of economic development. Or even if it is crossed, it is difficult to stay in the ranks of developed countries for a long time because of various factors, such as talent, science and technology, currency devaluation and insufficient innovation ability, and it is a common phenomenon.
How did China overcome the "middle income" trap during the Tenth Five-Year Plan period? To lay a solid foundation for us to rush to moderately developed countries is what we must think during the "14 th Five-Year Plan" period. Of course, the most important thing here is that we must adhere to the general direction of reform and opening up. Only by adhering to reform and opening up can China have the opportunity to rush to moderately developed countries; Second, we must take the road of market economy; Third, we should adjust some economic development strategies according to the changes at home and abroad, such as the dual-cycle development strategy. We should promote domestic demand, promote economic development, and promote economic development through the growth of domestic demand, then the income level of China residents will be improved.
At the same time, China’s higher education shoulders the responsibility of cultivating talents with high quality that match those of developed countries. What is very important here is its scientific and technological innovation ability, innovation ability and scientific and technological level, and its thinking must not be bound. Once bound, its innovation ability will drop greatly. In many countries, the core of the "middle income" trap is the decline of innovation ability. Higher education cannot provide high-quality talent support for developed countries, so it declined, so it came back. Higher education in our country shoulders the responsibility of the times and the historical mission. They should have a strong sense of innovation, scientific and technological ability to keep pace with the times, and a sense of responsibility to keep pace with the times. These are all great responsibilities that higher education will face in the future.
A series of reforms we are doing now are moving in this direction. Thank you all.
