Interview: Minister stresses stabilizing industrial economy, boosting advantages

A worker works at a factory of Harbin Electric Machinery Company Ltd. of Harbin Electric Corporation in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Sept. 3, 2022. [Xinhua/Wang Song]

BEIJING -- China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has urged all-out efforts to stabilize industrial growth, calling for more steps to accelerate the building of a modern industrial system, strengthen the weak links in industrial chains, and promote the digital economy.

Over the past year, the ministry has rolled out multiple supportive measures to cope with the shock of factors beyond expectations, Jin Zhuanglong, minister of the MIIT, said in an interview with Xinhua.

The minister said that the industrial sector has continued to serve as the "ballast stone" of the macroeconomic market, citing figures showing that the total added value of Chinese industrial enterprises above a designated size registered 3.8-percent year-on-year growth in the first 11 months of 2022.

Despite the current difficulties with operation, China's industrial economy's advantages of a complete industrial system and strong domestic demand are still prominent, Jin said.

He said that the optimized COVID-19 response, combined with existing and incremental policies, will boost market confidence, with the vitality of market entities, consumption potential and the driving force of industrial upgrading effectively released.

"We have the confidence, conditions and capability to promote a stable recovery of the industrial economy," Jin said.

He said China will take steps to stabilize industrial growth with a focus on key industries and areas. Targeted policies will be introduced to boost the stable growth of pillar industries such as automobiles and electronics, while efforts should be made to cultivate fresh growth points in new energy, new materials and other emerging industries.

The ministry will focus on tilting more sources for manufacturing enterprises to help them attain high-end, smart and green development, enhancing services for major foreign-invested projects in the manufacturing sector and actively expanding consumption.

To speed up the building of the modern industrial system, Jin urged efforts to identify the weak links in key and core technologies, as well as components and parts of the country's major manufacturing industrial chains, and pull together resources to tackle the problems, so that major industrial chains are more independent and controllable.

Meanwhile, efforts should be made to reinforce the leading status of industries where China excels, the minister said. The country will take steps to ensure the new-energy vehicle industry flourishes and will adopt a market-oriented approach to support leading enterprises in growing stronger and bigger, while boosting the development of supporting industries, according to Jin.

Meanwhile, the country will also elevate the competitiveness of the photovoltaic industry in an all-round way and advance the high-quality development of the shipbuilding industry, said the minister.

The MIIT will provide greater support to promote the high-quality development of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as these firms still face tough challenges in maintaining stable operations, according to Jin.

In an effort to boost the development of SMEs, China will strive to ensure that the number of SMEs that feature specialization, refinement, uniqueness and innovation exceeds 80,000 by the end of 2023, while that of the "little giant" firms -- referring to small enterprises in their early stage of development and focusing on high-end technologies -- will top 10,000.

While noting the important role of the digital economy in spurring economic growth and building the modern industrial system, Jin highlighted the headway that China has achieved in advancing the digital upgrade of the industrial sector.

China has built the world's largest and technologically advanced network facilities, covering 500 million families with gigabit fiber-optic networks, with nearly 2.3 million 5G base stations.

Looking into the future, Jin called for accelerating the construction of digital infrastructure, promoting the innovative development of the digital industry and deepening the digital transformation of the manufacturing sector.

China has vowed to build world-class digital industrial clusters and a batch of world-leading smart factories and smart supply chains amid the country's efforts to develop the digital economy, Jin said.