China vowed on Friday to make breakthroughs in emerging industries, including cutting-edge fields such as humanoid robots, 6G mobile technology and atomic-scale manufacturing, which will help it strengthen its position in high-growth technology sectors while keeping traditional sectors as a base.
“China’s industrial development has made great strides, but generally speaking, it is still at a critical crossroads in growing from a big country to a powerful one and overcoming difficulties,” Kim told a news conference.
“There are still significant deficiencies in key core technologies and basic industrial capabilities.”
According to Jin, cutting-edge industries such as brain-computer interfaces, the metaverse, next-generation Internet, quantum computing, deep sea, and aerospace have also been selected as priority areas.
He also said China will build a number of national manufacturing innovation centers for emerging sectors, including biomanufacturing.
By 2023, China’s total industrial added value will reach 39.9 trillion yuan (US$5.5 trillion), accounting for 31.7% of its gross domestic product.
According to the ministry, manufacturing value added accounts for 26.2% of GDP, about one-third of the world total.
Kim said China’s “strategic” emerging industries account for 13 percent of GDP and have huge potential for growth.
The current external environment is complex and severe, and domestic effective demand remains insufficient.
Regarding traditional industries, including steel, the minister said they are the foundation of the modern industrial system and China’s manufacturing industry and need to be transformed and upgraded, rather than treated as “low-grade industries” that should be eliminated.
“The current external environment is complex and severe, and domestic effective demand is still insufficient,” Kim said.
China’s application of industrial robots accounts for more than 50 percent of the world’s total, and it has cultivated 421 national-level intelligent manufacturing factories, Xin Guobin said.
Officials on Friday also pledged to further open up China’s manufacturing sector.
Reform and Opening Up is the driving force behind modern China’s development
Xin said there were 2,037 foreign companies operating telecommunications businesses in China as of the end of June.
“Reform and opening up is the driving force behind modern China’s development,” he added.
