The word "resource" is a personal capital, which refers to various material elements such as material resources, financial resources and human resources possessed by a country or a region. Generally can be divided into natural resources and social resources. The former includes sunshine, air, water, land, forests, grasslands, animals, minerals and so on. The latter includes human resources, information resources and all kinds of material wealth created through labor.

The understanding of resources has a development process. According to the definitions of Marx and Engels, it not only points out the objective existence of natural resources, but also regards human factors (including labor and technology) as another indispensable source of wealth. In this way, the connotation of resources includes not only natural resources, including social, economic and technical factors of human labor, but also resources such as manpower, talents and intelligence (information and knowledge). According to this truth, resources are "all substances, energy and information that can be developed and utilized by human beings." They widely exist in nature and human society, and they are a kind of natural existence or wealth that can bring wealth to mankind. " In other words, resources refer to an objective existence form that can be used to create material wealth and spiritual wealth in nature and human society, such as land resources, mineral resources, forest resources, marine resources, petroleum resources, human resources and information resources.