Emerging Industries Lead Highquality Development
Strategic emerging industries are flourishing as China advances economic transformation and upgrading, injecting new impetus into high-quality development.
The country’s GDP grew to 99.09 trillion yuan ($14.38 trillion) last year, with percapita GDP topping $10,000, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The Chinese economy has been moving from a phase of high-speed growth to a stage of high-quality development, said Ning Jizhe, head of the NBS.
In 2019, the value- added industrial output expanded 5.7 percent year on year, with production in hi-tech manufacturing and strategic emerging industries increasing 8.8 percent and 8.4 percent, respectively.
As strategic emerging industries, hitech manufacturing and modern services expand in the economy, China’s economic structure is continuing to be optimized, with improved quality and resilience, noted Liu Zhe, a researcher with the think tank WANB Institute.
In November 2019, mobile phone shipments were 34.84 million units, while 5G phone shipments reached 5.07 million units, for the first time exceeding 5 million units in a month, according to data from the China Academy of Information and
Communications Technology (CAICT).
These 5G phones are just a glimpse into the huge industrial opportunities brought about by new technologies. China’s total 5G investment will be about 900 billion yuan ($128.75 billion) in 2020, while the fast-growing market will create an estimated 6.3 trillion yuan ($901.3 billion) of direct output value in 2030, a CAICT report said.
Emerging key information technology such as 5G is becoming the core engine for the digital economy, as well as an important area in advancing supply-side structural reform, ensuring China’s leading position in the new round of scientific and technological revolution, said Yuan Leifeng, an official with the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council.
In Jiangxi Province in east China, the application of virtual reality (VR) technology is speeding up. For example, a skilled welder can pound 4,000 to 5,000 nails a day. However, a robot with VR technology can pound 25,000 in the same amount of time, of higher quality and only one eighth the cost of a skilled welder, said Yang Wen, a representative from Jianglian Heavy Industry Group Co. Ltd.
Meanwhile, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) released the first list of China’s 66 strategic emerging industry clusters in 2019, which included 30 clusters in central and western regions.
The revenue of the listed companies in strategic emerging industries in central and west China increased 9.6 percent and 12.2 percent, respectively, in the first three quarters of 2019, higher than the growth rates in east and northeast China, showing a narrowing gap across different regions, said Liu Yunan, head of the State Information Center.
Moreover, the Yangtze River Economic Belt will cultivate a group of world-class enterprises and industrial clusters in 2020 to achieve significant improvement in the quality and efficiency of economic development, according to the guideline of the development plan for the area.
As one of the subcenters of Shanghai, Xuhui District had 29.2 billion yuan ($4.18 billion) in output value from artificial intelligence (AI) and related industries in 2019, up 30.8 percent year on year, with the headquarters of several companies established there.
Microsoft Research Labs, Huawei’s Kunpeng Industrial Ecosystem Innovation Center and Sensetime’s Chinese headquarters and global research and development headquarters were established in Xuhui, as the AI industrial cluster of the district made it to the NDRC’S list.
In addition, Xuhui will build a collaborative innovation platform and enhance its attractiveness for more domestic and international innovation resources for its innovation-driven development model, said Bao Bingzhang, Secretary of the Communist Party of China Xuhui District Committee.
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