The first meeting of the 20th Central Financial and Economic Commission on May 5th emphasized the need to fully understand and correctly view China's new population development situation, and for the first time proposed "advancing Chinese modernization with support from the high-quality development of the population".

For a long time, a large population scale and a large proportion of the working-age population have been considered the "demographic dividend" of China's economic growth. It is undeniable that in recent years, China's population development has exhibited the trend of fewer children, ageing, and regional population growth differentiation, which are objective results of China's economic development, especially the industrialization and urbanization. Such problems are common in the world, especially in developed countries. To solidly promote Chinese modernization, we must fully understand and correctly view the new situation of population development and forge new advantages in population development.

The new advantage lies in high-quality population development, which serves as an important support for Chinese modernization and an important goal of modernization construction.

On one hand, Guangdong province boasts its large population scale and high urbanization rate as its significant advantages. On the other hand, regional population growth differentiation and imbalanced urban and rural population development are also basic facts about Guangdong's population. Therefore, upholding high-quality population development is the only choice for Guangdong as a populous province at the forefront of promoting Chinese modernization.

The following comes with some detailed facts about the population in Guangdong.

Firstly, in terms of the total amount specifically, Guangdong's registered population exceeded 100 million for the first time in 2022. And the province has been the largest fertility province for five consecutive years and is the only province in the country with a birth population of more than one million. What's more, Guangdong's total migrant population reached 29.622 million, ranking first in the country.

When it comes to quality, the data from the seventh national population census show that Guangdong has a population with higher education of 19.78 million. The large scale of talent provides the potential for Guangdong to fully utilize the talent dividend, and major strategic layouts such as building the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area into a high-level talent base also provide opportunities and platforms for various talents.

But how should Guangdong achieve high-quality population development? The meeting has pointed out a clear direction that focuses on Chinese modernization with high-quality population development by accelerating the shaping of modern human resources with excellent quality, abundant quantity, optimized structure, and reasonable distribution.

Notably, "a reasonable distribution" indicates that Guangdong should pay more attention to the distribution of population with industrial structure and regional development structure in the process of Chinese modernization. On one hand, Guangdong should speed up the construction of a modern industrial system supported by the real economy with a rational layout of industrial structure so as to create diverse employment opportunities. On the other hand, Guangdong should enhance solid population basis for its high-quality development by a vigorous rural revitalization strategy deeply promoting the "high-quality development project of hundreds of counties, thousands of towns and thousands of villages" to continuously improve the equalization of public services and gradually narrow the regional development gap.

Chinese modernization is based on a large population scale. The new journey to pave a path to Chinese modernization with a large population scale requires Guangdong province to comprehensively improve the population quality, accelerate the shaping of modern human resources, and build a talent-strong province, which helps provide a stronger and more lasting intellectual support for Guangdong's high-quality development.

评论丨以人口高质量发展积极探索中国式现代化的广东路径

近日，二十届中央财经委员会第一次会议强调，必须全面认识、正确看待我国人口发展新形势，并首次提出“以人口高质量发展支撑中国式现代化”。

长期以来，人口规模较大、劳动年龄人口比重较大，被认为是中国经济增长的“人口红利”。不可否认的是，近年来我国人口发展呈现少子化、老龄化、区域人口增减分化的趋势性特征。这是我国经济发展特别是工业化、城镇化发展到一定阶段的客观结果，也是全世界尤其是发达国家普遍面临的问题。扎实推进中国式现代化，要全面认识、正确看待人口发展新形势，更要着力锻造人口发展新优势。

新优势从何处来？人口高质量发展。这既是中国式现代化的重要支撑，也是现代化建设的重要目标。

人口规模巨大、城镇化率高，是广东的显著优势。与此同时，区域人口增减分化、城乡区域人口发展不平衡，也是广东的基本省情。在推进中国式现代化建设中走在前列，坚持人口高质量发展是人口大省广东的不二之选。

看总量——2022年，广东户籍人口首次过亿。生育方面，广东连续五年成为第一生育大省，是全国唯一一个保持出生人口超100万的省份；流动人口方面，广东外来人口总规模高达2962.2万人，位居全国之首。

看质量——第七次全国人口普查数据显示，广东高等教育人口达1978万人。规模庞大的人才数量为广东充分利用人才红利提供了可能，建设粤港澳大湾区高水平人才高地等重大战略布局也为各类人才提供了机遇平台。

实现人口高质量发展，广东该如何做？会议已指明了方向：“加快塑造素质优良、总量充裕、结构优化、分布合理的现代化人力资源，以人口高质量发展支撑中国式现代化。”

值得一提的是“分布合理”，这意味着在中国式现代化进程中，广东要更重视人口和产业结构、人口和区域发展结构的分布。一方面，广东要加快建设以实体经济为支撑的现代化产业体系，合理布局产业结构，创造多元就业机会；另一方面，广东要大力实施乡村振兴战略，深入推进“百县千镇万村高质量发展工程”，不断提高公共服务均等化水平，逐步缩小区域发展差距，为广东高质量发展提供更加坚实的人口支撑。

中国式现代化是人口规模巨大的现代化。新征程上，全面提升人口质量，加快塑造现代化人力资源，建设人才强省，将为广东高质量发展提供更强劲、更持久的智力支撑，也是积极探索人口规模巨大的中国式现代化广东路径的必然要求。

文丨李妹妍
图丨新华社资料图
翻译丨陈萱
责编丨古司祺