As a representative of private enterprises, Chinese machinery giant Sany Group said that private enterprises in the country, while enjoying benefits provided by society, should create wealth for society in return through scientific innovations.

Tang Xiuguo, president of Sany Group, said: "China's reform and opening-up offer private enterprises opportunities to develop. Especially during the COVID-19 era, the government has launched a series of policies in tax, investment and bidding to improve its business environment and help enterprises overcome difficulties."

"The government offered us a peaceful and orderly environment. In return, private enterprises should focus on scientific innovations to create wealth for society," he said.

The company's pile machine factory in Beijing, namely Sany Beijing, was recently approved as a "Lighthouse Factory" by the World Economic Forum, becoming the first one approved in heavy industry in the world.

The Lighthouse Factory list was jointly issued by the WEF and global market research company McKinsey & Co. It was intended to select factories leading the way in the adoption and integration of frontier technologies around the world.

Lighthouse Factories represent the highest level of intelligent manufacturing and digitalization in the global manufacturing industry today.

The official website of WEF said the reason for approving Sany Beijing as a Lighthouse Factory was that "faced with growing demand and rising complexity in the multicategory and small-batch heavy machinery market, Sany Beijing deployed advanced human-machine collaboration automation, artificial intelligence and internet of things technologies to boost labor productivity by 85 percent. It also reduced production lead time by 77 percent, down from 30 to seven days."

Dai Qinghua, chairman and senior vice-president of Sany Group, said: "Sany Group raised the concept of digital transformation in 2018. During the process of digital transformation, we launched an intelligent research institute to plan the development of intelligent manufacturing."

"In 2020, we spent 15 billion yuan ($2.3 billion) in upgrades and transformation. We have made detailed plans in building more Lighthouse Factories and designing future development," he said.

The company began the Lighthouse Factory transformation on 20 factories starting in 2019. Among them, Sany Beijing was the first to complete the transformation.

"The transformation greatly increased the factory's efficiency. Before the transformation, more than 10 people operated the automatic assembly line. Now, only one person is required to operate the line," Dai said.

During the 2021 China International Fire Protection Equipment Technology Conference & Exposition, Sany Group demonstrated a series of cutting-edge products, including large-span firefighting trucks, water tower firetrucks, remote controlled firefighting trucks, trailblazers, multifunction emergency rescue vehicles, transport robots, firefighting reconnaissance robots, and rescue robot dogs.

According to the company, its water tower fire truck won the first prize for innovation presented by the China Fire Protection Association.

Zhou Rong, an expert with the Hubei Research Center for Theoretical System of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics, said: "Private enterprises are the main force of China's innovative development. They are also an important carrier for gathering scientific and technological innovation elements."

"Giving full play to the important role of private enterprises in scientific innovation can effectively solve difficulties and problems encountered by enterprises in the development process. It can also enhance their innovation capabilities and core competitiveness, and effectively contribute to the overall improvement of China's scientific innovation level," Zhou said.

He added that to enhance innovation, Chinese private enterprises should promote integration between enterprises, universities and research institutes, enhance intellectual property protections, improve talent cultivation mechanisms and build a favorable environment for scientific innovation.

Tang Dajie, a guest researcher at Wuhan University, said: "To boost scientific innovation, Chinese private enterprises should make reforms to their management system and establish innovation incentive mechanisms. They should also focus on talent introduction and cultivation mechanisms."

A market environment for free competition is also needed for enterprises' innovative development, Tang said.