The chickens have certainly come home to roost on Wall Street.

More than 20 years ago, the New York Stock Exchange declared, with what has since proved to be false hubris, that a strong manufacturing industry was no longer necessary for economic prosperity. The global financial crisis has revealed the hollow ring to these words.

So it was wise for Premier Wen Jiabao to emphasize that the financial industry must serve the real economy at the Central Financial Work Conference last week.

The debt problems of many developed countries have proved that relying on the financial sector alone is a fool's paradise.

And the financial sector has also been found wanting as a driver for the global economy, which is being dragged from the doldrums in which it was becalmed by the manufacturing industries of emerging economies, particularly those in Asia.

A withering manufacturing industry means fewer jobs - a stark truth that the US is learning from bitter experience - and more people employed in the service industry.

But without a healthy manufacturing industry, the development of the service sector cannot promote sustainable economic development.

Compared with the United States and the other European countries, Germany boasts a more robust economy because it has sought a balance between finance and manufacturing.

And for developing countries, a healthy manufacturing sector is the only way to avoid the middle-income trap. Research by the Asian Development Bank indicates that shriveling manufacturing is the main reason that some emerging economies in Asia will be caught in the trap.

Developing the real economy does not mean grasping tenaciously to the lower end of the industrial chain, or being content to be the workshops for the world.

In the process of developing the real economy, it is necessary to improve the manufacturing industry with continual upgrading and innovation so that it is at the higher end of the industrial chain.

The harsh realities of the global economy have only strengthened people's awareness that developing the real economy is the only way to ensure a solid foundation for a sustainable economic recovery.

(China Daily 01/12/2012 page8)