China has held the title of "factory of the world" for many years. How far is it from "big power" to "great power"? Miao Wei, a member of the 19th CPC Central Committee, deputy director of the Committee of Economy of the CPPCC National Committee and former minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said on Thursday that China is in the third tier of the four-tier global manufacturing industry and will need at least 30 years to become a manufacturing power.
Miao Wei delivered a speech at the 4th session of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) on promoting high-quality development of the manufacturing industry. He said that in recent years, though great achievements of China's manufacturing industry development have been made, China is indeed big, not strong and our development is comprehensive but not optimal. That situation has not been fundamentally changed. Our basic ability is still weak, the key core technologies are still controlled. We have increasing risks of “being gripped throat” and “dropping the ball”. That manufacturing as a share of GDP goes down too soon, too fast, which will not only drag the current economic growth, affect the urban employment, but also will bring industrial safety hidden trouble, weaken the risk resistance ability of the Chinese economy and international competitiveness.
Miao said that China's complete manufacturing system has played an important role in the fight against COVID-19. In recent years, people from all sides have paid much more attention to and supported the development of the manufacturing industry. However, the whole society has not yet reached a consensus on accelerating the development of the manufacturing industry.
To this end, he believes that we must draw lessons from history, further emphasize the strategic position and role of manufacturing, protect the most complete industrial system in China, improve the independent and controllable ability of the industrial chain and supply chain, and protect the national wealth that we have saved over the decades.
On the second session of the fourth time of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) held on the same day, Si Zefu, a member of the CPPCC Standing Committee from the manufacturing sector and chairman of Harbin Electric Group, said that China has realized the transformation from a lagging catch-up to a runner. As for the problems that still exist in the manufacturing industry, Si Zefu admits that our three soft powers "are not as good as those of developed countries" : innovation ability and innovation level, product quality and brand, management level and efficiency(especially profitability).
"China's 14th Five-Year Plan has already begun. I think Chinese manufacturing industry will seize this opportunity and quickly make up for its shortcomings." Si Zefu said.
