The government work report of this year’s two sessions clearly proposed to enhance the core competitiveness of the manufacturing industry. In the context of the current competition among big countries, the development of manufacturing industry, especially advanced manufacturing industry, is of great significance for China to improve its innovation ability, establish and improve the modern industrial system, and move from a big manufacturing country to a powerful manufacturing country. In the context of China’s high-quality economic development, the development of manufacturing industry is important for stabilizing employment, growth and investment; For expanding the middle-income class; It plays an extremely important role for the industry to move towards medium and high-end.
The author believes that to enhance the core competitiveness of the manufacturing industry, we should “three pronged”, strengthen and make solid progress from the three aspects of scale, cluster and upgrading, so as to achieve practical results.
First, strengthen and expand the manufacturing industry, especially the advanced manufacturing industry, and stabilize the proportion of manufacturing added value in GDP. The core competitiveness of manufacturing industry is closely related to its scale in a large country and a mega city. In 2021, the added value of China’s manufacturing industry accounted for 27.4% of GDP, an increase of 1.1 percentage points year-on-year. This is the first time that the proportion of China’s manufacturing industry has rebounded in recent years. To some extent, this is related to the incomplete recovery of the service industry affected by the epidemic, and is also closely related to actively promoting the high-quality development of manufacturing industry in recent years. Among industries above Designated Size in 2021, the added value of high-tech manufacturing increased by 18.2% over the previous year, accounting for 15.1% of the added value of industries above Designated Size; The added value of equipment manufacturing industry increased by 12.9%, accounting for 32.4% of the added value of industries above designated size. In 2021, the investment in high-tech industry increased by 17.1% over the previous year, and the actual use of foreign capital in high-tech industry was 346.9 billion yuan, an increase of 17.1%. High tech manufacturing and equipment manufacturing account for nearly half of the manufacturing industry, and maintain double-digit growth, which is the main factor to stabilize the proportion of added value of manufacturing industry; A sustained high level of manufacturing investment is a favorable factor to promote the steady recovery of the proportion of manufacturing added value.
Keeping the proportion of manufacturing industry stable has become an important issue related to the overall situation of the national economy. According to the requirements of the 14th five year plan and the outline of long-term objectives for 2035, the proportion of manufacturing industry should be basically stable. In the work report of local governments in 2022, stabilizing or increasing the proportion of manufacturing industry has become the focus of attention. The reason why we should attach great importance to maintaining the stability of the proportion of manufacturing industry is that manufacturing industry is the basic department and important lifeline of the national economy. Only when the manufacturing industry grows steadily can employment increase steadily and the real economy develop healthily.
To maintain the stable proportion of manufacturing industry, we should pay more attention to improving quality and efficiency. The digital transformation of manufacturing industry is an important starting point to enhance its competitiveness. The ongoing pilot demonstration of the integrated development of new generation information technology and manufacturing industry has played a positive role in cultivating the application ability of enterprise digital technology, promoting the deep integration of advanced manufacturing industry and modern service industry, and developing service-oriented manufacturing. We should strengthen the tackling of key core technologies, accelerate the construction of key technology and product innovation ecosystem, and promote the development of manufacturing industry to high-end, intelligent and green.
The supply chain should remain more resilient than the manufacturing industry. In recent years, global economic development has faced downward pressure. Countries all over the world have re realized the important role of manufacturing industry in stimulating economic growth and creating employment opportunities. Therefore, in order to improve the stability and competitiveness of industrial chain and supply chain, we should forge long boards and consolidate and enhance the leading position of advantageous industries; We should make up for the shortcomings, deeply implement the industrial foundation reconstruction project, and establish an independent, controllable, safe and reliable Chinese production and supply system and supply chain in areas related to national security.
Secondly, strengthen modern industrial clusters based on innovation clusters and form a benign ecology and resilient industrial chain for the development of manufacturing industry. Modern industrial clusters are closely related to innovation clusters. From the perspective of the world or a large country, this is the problem of innovation location: can innovation clusters be formed in all places? The answer is No. This is because innovation requires a number of necessary and sufficient conditions, such as talent, capital, infrastructure, innovation ecology and even climate. Not every place has these conditions. The further question is where there are industries and where there are no industries, that is, industrial clusters. In other words, innovation clusters will inevitably bring industrial clusters. Because the industrialization of innovation achievements will be implemented in a larger scope, the spatial scope of industrial clusters is often larger than that of innovation clusters. Strategist Michael Porter wrote in national competitive advantage: “the key to a country’s sustainable and improved productivity lies in whether it is qualified to become a base of advanced industry or important industrial links.” The base here is the place of innovation and industrial clusters.
Innovation clusters need good universities and good ecology, which can be cultivated. However, each innovation cluster has some innovation elements that cannot be imitated elsewhere, or comes from local forces. This power is rooted in local resources and culture, which is an important cognition of innovation geography or new economic geography. Different innovation clusters are to enable these elements to generate and gather in a certain space, and give birth to new technologies, new models, new products and services, as well as new industries and new formats.
At present, the formation of “regional clusters with high-quality development” or “regional economic layout with high-quality development” is becoming an important goal of the national strategy of spatial layout. What is the essence of regional clusters? In other words, what is the core of regional economic layout? Innovation clusters and industrial clusters. The scale and quality of innovation clusters determine the level of industrial clusters, that is, strategic emerging industries and future industrial development, and then determine the high-quality development of regional clusters. The industries in industrial clusters mainly refer to high-tech manufacturing, equipment manufacturing and strategic emerging manufacturing. The leading enterprises and backbone enterprises of advanced manufacturing generally exist in the core areas of the economy of large countries, such as the Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River Delta. They are the bearing area and source of China’s advanced manufacturing industry and even the modern industrial system.
Thirdly, accelerate the upgrading of manufacturing industry and form an advanced manufacturing industry system dominated by high-tech manufacturing, equipment manufacturing and strategic emerging manufacturing. After long-term and sustained efforts, high-tech manufacturing and equipment manufacturing have made considerable progress. China is already the country with the most sound industrial system. It is fully proved that the added value of manufacturing industry ranks first in the world for 11 consecutive years. However, building a socialist modern country in an all-round way puts forward new and higher requirements for the development of manufacturing industry, and the upgrading of manufacturing industry is urgent. According to the new trend and pattern of industrial development, strategic emerging industries and future industries have become the leaders and main components of the modern industrial system. Strategic emerging industries that have developed to a certain scale and level are the cornerstone of a country or region’s national economic and social development and the main symbol of a country or region’s economic modernization.
The 14th five year plan and the outline of long-term goals for 2035 put forward ideas and requirements for developing strategic emerging industries and forward-looking planning future industries respectively. The outline points out, “build a new pillar of the industrial system. Focus on the new generation of strategic emerging industries such as information technology, biotechnology, new energy, new materials, high-end equipment, new energy vehicles, green environmental protection, aerospace and marine equipment, accelerate the innovation and application of key core technologies, enhance the ability to guarantee factors, and cultivate and expand new drivers for industrial development.” Aerospace and marine equipment seem to be newly added strategic emerging industries. In fact, they are separated from the high-end equipment manufacturing industry because they grow rapidly and become a trillion level industry. This will happen again in the future. The outline also pointed out that “in the fields of cutting-edge science and technology and industrial transformation, such as brain like intelligence, quantum information, gene technology, future network, deep-sea space development, hydrogen energy and energy storage, we will organize and implement future industry incubation and acceleration plans and plan to layout a number of future industries.” Both strategic emerging industries and future industries evolve dynamically. Future industries are tomorrow’s strategic emerging industries. Strategic emerging industries include strategic emerging manufacturing and service industries. Their development will accelerate the pace of China’s industrial transformation and upgrading, and promote high-quality economic and social development with industrial modernization.
