Industry leaders underline high-end sectors, innovation, homegrown tech

China's stress on high-end manufacturing will help create a modern industrial system, safeguard industrial and supply chains, and foster new competitive strengths, said national legislators and political advisers.

They called for concerted efforts to make breakthroughs in core technologies, given that upgrading the manufacturing sector has been high on China's development agenda as a requirement for bolstering the real economy.

Their comments came after President Xi Jinping said manufacturing is an indispensable sector to China at all times. He made the remark during a deliberation with a delegation of fellow deputies from Jiangsu province on Sunday during the first session of the 14th National People's Congress.

Currently, China's manufacturing sector boasts a complete range of categories, Xi said, adding the country will strive to develop high-end manufacturing to realize all-round improvement, and provide full support for its development.

Miao Wei, deputy director of the Committee on Economic Affairs of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the nation's top political advisory body, highlighted the importance of achieving breakthroughs in core technologies in key fields and resolving bottlenecks, so as to improve the resilience and safety of industrial and supply chains.

Miao, the former minister of industry and information technology, said efforts should be made to give full play to the role of leading enterprises, step up support for small and medium-sized enterprises and foster more "little giant" companies that specialize in niche industries with cutting-edge technologies and great growth potential.

Manufacturing is the foundation of a country, and the high-quality development of China's manufacturing sector has entered the fast lane buoyed by digital technologies like cloud computing, big data, internet of things and blockchain, said Zhou Yunjie, a deputy to the 14th NPC, and chairman and CEO of Chinese home appliance giant Haier Group.

"As the country is making efforts to build itself into a manufacturing powerhouse, more push is needed to promote innovative application of industrial internet and fully unleash the value of massive data resources, which is also key to advancing new industrialization," Zhou said.

Zhou suggested establishing a quality standard system in the context of new industrialization, and cultivating a batch of industrial big data service providers, who will participate in the formulation of standards and rules related to industrial data ownership confirmation, circulation and transactions.

Data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology showed that China accounted for nearly 30 percent of global manufacturing output in 2021, up from 22.5 percent in 2012, and maintained its title as the world's largest manufacturing country.

Noting technological innovation is the prerequisite to improving the resilience of industrial chains, Jia Shaoqian, a deputy to the 14th NPC and chairman of Chinese home appliance manufacturer Hisense Group, said leading enterprises should play a significant role in achieving breakthroughs in some core technologies in key fields.

He suggested the country should increase support in R&D of the frontier laser display technology, basic materials and basic techniques to boost the core competitiveness in new-generation display technologies.

"The high-tech manufacturing sector has become an important driving force for China's high-quality economic development," said Li Dongsheng, a deputy to the 14th NPC, and founder and chairman of consumer electronics maker TCL Technology Group Corp.

China's manufacturers should transition from exporting products to exporting industrial capacities, ramp up localized operations abroad and avoid trade barriers to enhance their global competitiveness, he said.

Dong Mingzhu, chairwoman of Chinese home appliance maker Gree Electric Appliances, said Chinese enterprises should stick to independent innovation, and master core technologies so as to promote the upgrade and transformation of the country's manufacturing sector.

Dong, also a deputy to the 14th NPC, said it is important to push the manufacturing sector toward higher-end, smarter and greener production, adding talent is key to promoting the high-quality development of manufacturing.