BEIJING, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) — Shifting from the “world factory” to a tech innovation hub, China is accelerating the event of new quality productive forces to forge a new progress path amid a extra advanced international panorama.
The world’s second-largest financial system has just lately unveiled a pivotal doc outlining priorities for its fifteenth Five-Year Plan (2026-2030), which emphasizes “achieving greater self-reliance and strength in science and technology” and “steering the development of new quality productive forces” as key targets for the approaching 5 years.
As a pillar of China’s high-quality improvement, the cultivation of new quality productive forces tailor-made to native situations has made notable strides in recent times and is anticipated to play an much more pivotal position in supporting progress within the close to future.
TECH-POWERED UPGRADES
Under vibrant white lights, an automatic manufacturing line hums softly as robotic arms elevate, pivot and place miniature parts with precision. Autonomous carts glide seamlessly between workstations, transporting trays of components with out pause. In an adjoining management room, a small staff of technicians displays dashboards that combine real-time knowledge.
This scene performs out day by day at Dongguan Moldbao Smart Technology Co., a mould producer in Dongguan, south China’s Guangdong Province. Founded in 2016, the corporate has been an early pioneer in China’s smart-manufacturing drive, launching a number of automated mould manufacturing traces able to operating across the clock.
“Molds are known as the ‘mother of industry’ and are used across many sectors, but producing them demands high consistency and precision,” mentioned Wang Sheng, vice chairman of the corporate. “To ensure that, we rely on data, which is more stable than humans.”
Doubling down on know-how upgrades, the corporate has digitized and automatic each step of manufacturing, Wang mentioned, from design and programming to manufacturing and logistics. With the ensuing effectivity beneficial properties, the corporate has shortened its mould manufacturing cycle by about 30 %.
Across China, conventional industries are present process a technology-driven transformation to increase productiveness and open new paths for progress.
In northeast China’s Liaoning Province, a standard heavy-industry base, clever and inexperienced upgrades are reworking legacy sectors, providing a transparent path to shed its rust-belt picture. For instance, Ansteel, a serious provincial steelmaker, has deployed an clever system to optimize molten metal dealing with, decreasing manufacturing prices by 15 % and slicing wastewater discharge by 21 %.
Speaking about this nationwide development, Lyu Peng, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, mentioned it exemplifies the event of new quality productive forces, which span each cutting-edge and conventional industries. “New quality productive forces are not limited to strategic emerging or future industries,” Lyu added. “With transformation and upgrading, traditional sectors can become them as well.”
Numerous firms throughout the nation are accelerating their digital transformation efforts. According to the China Internet Development Report 2024, the nation now has practically 10,000 digitalized workshops and clever factories. Of these, greater than 400 have been acknowledged as national-level benchmark factories in good manufacturing, using applied sciences reminiscent of AI and digital twins.
Using superior applied sciences reminiscent of info know-how, synthetic intelligence, huge knowledge and the Internet of Things, new quality productive forces reorganize and optimize conventional elements of manufacturing, reshaping how manufacturing is run and managed, mentioned Zhu Qigui, deputy director of the China Academy of Financial Research.
Zhu famous that these forces will affect technological renewal, manufacturing effectivity and industrial construction. “Chinese manufacturers must strengthen innovation, optimize industrial structure, and improve product quality and added value to achieve high-quality development and stand out in global competition,” he mentioned.
INNOVATION AS CORE
According to the suggestions from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China for the new five-year blueprint, the nation will strengthen self-reliance in science and know-how and information the event of new quality productive forces. “Innovation” is a recurring theme, with priorities together with elevating innovation capability throughout the board and advancing authentic innovation.
To this finish, Shenzhen, China’s main science and know-how hub, has offered an exemplary resolution. In Nanshan District, a sci‑tech innovation cluster is taking form, bringing collectively a various vary of innovators and enterprises.
“Here, it is easy for us to work with universities and research institutes, keeping us connected to cutting‑edge technologies and talent,” mentioned Zhou Qi, president of Dimension Technology Co., Ltd., an optical measurement options supplier. The cluster now hosts a number of {industry} leaders and practically 10 universities, showcasing an {industry}‑academia‑analysis collaboration mannequin that effectively interprets analysis outcomes into actual‑world productiveness.
One of Nanshan’s key expertise swimming pools is Shenzhen Polytechnic University, a state-funded vocational undergraduate establishment that produces graduates tailor-made to the urgent wants of {industry} and know-how companies. “We develop specialized courses around industrial chains, extend classrooms into industrial parks, and integrate talent training with production lines,” mentioned Xu Jianling, the college’s president. “Building on these efforts, we have advanced education reforms that adapt to industrial development.”
On a broader nationwide scale, China has fostered greater than 500,000 excessive‑tech enterprises over the previous 5 years and now claims the most important international share of sci‑tech innovation clusters.
The China Innovation Index, a barometer of the nation’s innovation functionality, rose 5.3 % from the 2023 degree to 174.2 final yr, in accordance to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The innovation setting has continued to enhance, with larger funding, quicker progress in outputs and stronger drivers of financial exercise, the bureau mentioned.
The nation’s sci‑tech innovation efforts are delivering an efficient enhance to progress, with the innovation effectiveness index reaching 132.4 final yr, up 1.9 % from a yr earlier, in accordance to the NBS. Specifically, the sub-index measuring the proportion of added worth from new applied sciences, new industries and new enterprise fashions in whole GDP elevated by 4.3 % yr on yr.
As a contributor of about 30 % to international progress, China’s shift towards innovation-driven improvement is drawing international buyers. Last month, AstraZeneca formally opened a new international R&D heart in Beijing. It is the British pharmaceutical firm’s sixth international strategic R&D heart and its second in China, following the primary in Shanghai.
Looking forward, Xiong Hongru, a researcher on the Development Research Center of the State Council, mentioned that as China pursues higher science and know-how self-reliance, it would bolster large-scale strategic fundamental analysis tasks centered on key frontiers.
Additionally, efforts will probably be made to deepen {industry}‑academia‑analysis integration in expertise cultivation to construct a aggressive human‑capital benefit, whereas accelerating the transformation and software of main scientific and technological achievements, Xiong added. ■