General Secretary Xi Jinping's series of important expositions on developing new quality productive forces have provided important theoretical guidance and scientific direction for the construction industry and engineering-construction-related industries to accelerate scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation on the new journey and to promote the high-quality development of the construction industry.

Scientific and technological innovation in engineering construction

The so-called new quality productive forces are productive forces driven primarily by scientific and technological innovation; they are productive forces that have broken away from the traditional growth path and meet the requirements of high-quality development; they are productive forces that are more integrative and embody new connotations in the digital era.

According to traditional concepts and theories, the main tasks of construction project management are project investment control, schedule control and quality control, among others. In recent years, "Project Management 2.0" and the "Project Economy" have emerged in the international project management field, bringing about disruptive changes. "Project Management 2.0" emphasizes that the purpose of a project is to deliver value, not merely deliverables (construction products), and directly expresses the value delivery system. Value can take various forms such as economic value, social value, theoretical value and political value. Rodriguez, former Chairman of the Board of the Project Management Institute (PMI) of the United States, pointed out at the "50 Big Thinkers European Business Forum" that the "Project Economy" is a new management theory system, and proposed a new definition of a project: "A project is a fundamental means of value creation and social change." This has also completely changed the traditional project management definition of a project. In his article "The Project Economy Has Arrived," he mentioned that the project economy will replace operations to become the economic engine of our era. By 2027, 88 million people worldwide will be engaged in project management work, and the value created by project-oriented economic activities will reach US$20 trillion. These new concepts will promote the development of engineering-construction-related professional education (such as civil engineering and engineering management majors), will promote scientific and technological innovation and the enhancement of industry value in engineering-construction-related industries, and will be conducive to accelerating the development of new quality productive forces.

Industrial innovation related to engineering construction

What are new quality productive forces? General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "In summary, new quality productive forces are an advanced form of productive forces in which innovation plays a leading role, which have broken away from the traditional economic growth mode and productive force development path, which feature high technology, high efficiency and high quality, and which conform to the new development philosophy. They are generated by revolutionary breakthroughs in technology, innovative allocation of production factors, and deep transformation and upgrading of industries; their basic connotation is the leap in workers, means of labor, objects of labor and their optimal combination; their core hallmark is a substantial increase in total factor productivity; their characteristic is innovation; their key lies in high quality; and their essence is advanced productive forces." This important exposition profoundly clarifies the basic theory of new quality productive forces.

As one of the three pillars of China's national economy, the construction industry serves the development of the national economy and the public's ever-improving living standards, and bears on the enhancement of the country's comprehensive national strength.

In order to gain an in-depth understanding of and improve China's construction industry management system, the State Council once organized a special delegation to conduct a three-week on-site study of the construction industries in Japan, Germany and the United States.

Through the study, delegation members came to understand deeply that the core function of construction departments in various countries is to supervise and manage public engineering projects invested in by central governments, while the day-to-day management of the construction industry is mainly the responsibility of the corresponding industry organizations. At the same time, at the local level, public works bureaus (public works departments) undertake the task of managing public works invested in by local governments.

By comparison, China attaches relatively great importance to construction industry management, but in the management of government-invested public works, including management systems, institutions and methods, it remains weak. Therefore, we need to systematically establish and improve this area in order to enhance the management level and efficiency of public works and ensure that similar accidents do not recur.

The article "Comparison of Chinese and Foreign Construction Industries: China's Construction Industry Still Has a Long Way to Go" points out that in terms of incremental growth, China's construction industry still has a 10-year development window; in terms of productivity levels and efficiency improvement, China's construction industry still has considerable room for action; and in terms of enterprise operating quality and internationalization level, Chinese construction enterprises, including design enterprises, engineering management consulting enterprises and construction enterprises, still need to make more efforts. In the process of internationalization of construction enterprises, there is still a relatively large gap between Chinese and foreign construction enterprises. Judging from data on the internationalization rates of the top 20 global largest international contractors from 2011 to 2021, over the 10 years the internationalization rate of Chinese enterprises showed a downward trend: after rising from 13.4% in 2011 to a peak of 24.7% in 2013, it slid all the way and fell to 9.9% in 2021; while over the same period the internationalization rate of foreign enterprises among the top 20 global largest international contractors remained basically stable at between 60% and 70%. The construction industry still has problems such as being "large but not strong" and "comprehensive but not excellent."

Scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation in the construction industry include organizational innovation, management innovation, economic innovation and technological innovation in the construction industry, among others. In order to accelerate alignment with international practice, promote the transformation of China's engineering construction organization model and advance the transformation and development of enterprises, in 2017 the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Promoting the Sustained and Healthy Development of the Construction Industry," which proposed "cultivating whole-process engineering consulting" in terms of improving the engineering construction organization model. In February 2023, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the "Outline for Building a Quality Power," which proposed "encouraging the development of whole-process engineering consulting" and listed it as an important part of "building an upgraded version of China Construction." At the same time, various localities have also actively issued relevant policies and promoted pilot projects, vigorously advancing the development of whole-process engineering consulting.

It has been more than seven years since whole-process engineering consulting was proposed. It is understood that more than ten relevant association standards compiled and published by various localities and industry organizations have been produced, yet the differences among these standards are quite significant. So why is there no standard contract or unified fee standard for life-cycle engineering project consulting internationally? The reason is that whole-process engineering consulting is not a specific contract model but a production organization model, which belongs to the broader field of production relations. If such production relations can be properly handled, it is expected to promote the development of productive forces and further form a more advanced form of productive forces.

At present, further advancing whole-process engineering consulting will still face many difficulties: the seller side is enthusiastic, but the buyer side is not yet proactive enough. The term commonly used internationally for whole-process engineering consulting is "life-cycle engineering project consultant," whose characteristics and development trends are as follows and can serve as a reference.

First, most are undertaken by large-scale and experienced multinational engineering consulting companies. Second, most multinational engineering consulting companies adopt business and development models that use financial means for corporate mergers and reorganization. Third, large engineering consulting companies absorb talent from many countries, establish a global presence, build network-type organizations, carry out various models of international cooperation and achieve globalized services. Fourth, they guide the entire engineering consulting work with sustainable development and actively carry out innovative research and development. Fifth, most large enterprises undertaking life-cycle engineering project consulting possess or maintain long-term cooperation with internationally renowned planning and architectural design teams. Sixth, large engineering consulting companies provide highly comprehensive and diversified services, including consulting services for engineering projects of various types, such as housing construction, industrial construction, infrastructure (highways, railways, subways, waterways, etc.), building equipment, environmental engineering and water engineering. Seventh, large engineering project consulting companies provide engineering consulting services with design as the main body. Eighth, the life-cycle engineering project consulting service has given rise to a new service model: one-stop solutions to systemic problems.