China promotes future industries agenda

(ANN/THE CHINA DAILY) – China aims to boost innovation in key technologies and breakthrough products in forward-looking and strategic emerging sectors, Minister of Industry and Information Technology Jin Zhuanglong said on Friday.

Jin highlighted plans to step up efforts to develop future industries, especially humanoid robots, brain-computer interfaces, the metaworld, next-generation Internet, 6G, quantum technology, atomic-level manufacturing, and deep-sea and outer space exploration.

In a speech at a news conference of the State Council Information Office, Jin outlined initiatives to launch research projects aimed at achieving breakthroughs in core technologies, developing key products and establishing incubators for these future-oriented industries.

He also stressed China’s commitment to supporting strategic emerging industries, which accounted for about 13 percent of China’s GDP last year and have strong growth prospects in the future.

The senior official highlighted the importance of some strategic emerging industries, such as new materials, artificial intelligence, smart new-energy connected vehicles, new energy storage, hydrogen energy, bio-production, commercial aerospace and the low-level economy.

“China will make greater efforts to develop leading companies with strong ecosystems linked to such strategic emerging industries, and will strive to build more new industries that can drive industrial upgrading,” he added.

In January, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, along with six other bodies and departments, presented guidelines calling on the country to seize global opportunities in technological innovation and industrial development, especially in six future directions: future manufacturing, future information, future materials, future energy, future space and future healthcare.

According to the guidelines, by 2025 a series of incubators and pilot zones for future industries should be built, and breakthrough discoveries should be achieved in about 100 basic technologies in key areas.

Hong Qunlian, a researcher at the Academy of Macroeconomic Research of the National Development and Reform Commission, said: “It has become increasingly clear that more efforts should be made this year to encourage companies to make breakthroughs in key technologies such as integrated circuits and overcome other technical bottlenecks, amid intensified global competition and geopolitical uncertainties.

“Without breakthroughs in these areas, it will be impossible to achieve industrial modernization and stable industrial growth.”

China’s industrial output — a gauge of activity in the manufacturing, mining and utilities sectors — rose 5.6 percent year-on-year in May, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Investment in fixed assets — a measure of spending on items such as infrastructure, real estate, machinery and equipment — also rose 4 percent year-on-year in January-May.

On Friday, Jin said the country will “further increase efficient investment in manufacturing” and implement detailed equipment upgrade plans in the industrial sector to promote equipment renewal.

China is currently promoting the modernization of industrial equipment. The country aims to increase investment in industrial equipment by more than 25 percent by 2027 compared with 2023 levels.

“The country will also use funds including the Production Transformation and Upgrading Fund, the Integrated Circuit Fund, and the Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise Development Fund to invest in more manufacturing sectors and channel social capital to invest in some key areas and weak links in building a modern industrial system,” he added.

Investment in industrial equipment accounts for more than 70 percent of the country’s total equipment investment, and the annual equipment replacement rate in the industrial sector is about CNY 4 trillion (USD 553 billion).

The country also hopes to achieve a digitalization rate of more than 90 percent for R&D design tools at major industrial enterprises and a computer numerical control usage rate of more than 75 percent for key processes at these enterprises.

Analysts at Wanlian Securities wrote in a research note that strategic, emerging and future-oriented industries will be the main focus areas for industrial upgrading as part of the plan to develop new, high-quality production forces.

They also said that policies regulating large-scale equipment replacement will have a direct impact on the development of the industrial equipment sector towards advanced, intelligent and ecological solutions.