Manufacturing bedrock of economic resilience

Editor's note: China has made building a modernized industrial system a priority for the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) period. Huang Qunhui, member of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, spoke to the 21st Century Business Herald about the key tasks necessary to achieve that goal. Below are excerpts of the interview. The views don't necessarily represent those of China Daily.

The 15th Five-Year Plan period will see the latest round of technological revolution accelerate and competition between major countries intensify.

During the next five years, China aims to advance the development of a strong and unified domestic market and improve the dynamism and reliability of its domestic economy through greater self-reliance. This requires further consolidating its manufacturing sector.

China's traditional mining, metallurgy, chemical, textile, machinery, shipbuilding and construction industries remain robust.

But as the world is going through another technological revolution, efforts are urgently needed to make these traditional industries smarter, more eco-friendly, more integrated and upscale.

In its recommendations for formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan, the central leadership indicated that it proposes to upgrade these industries to strengthen their international competitiveness.

The recommendations also emphasize the need to speed up the development of strategic emerging fields such as new energy, new materials, aviation and aerospace, and the low-altitude economy, and make them major drivers for China's sustainable growth.

When developing these strategic emerging industries, local governments of different regions must take into account the local conditions, and develop industry clusters that suit them.

They also need to implement industrial and competition policies based on facts, coordinate the policies and create a favorable environment for the development of local industries.

New types of infrastructure, represented by computing power networks, are a fundamental support for the latest round of technological revolution and industrial transformation. Forward planning is essential for developing such infrastructure. But the planning must take into account the local situation and the needs of local industries.

Also, it should be noted that overly bold planning may lead to insufficient use of infrastructure before it is replaced by new technologies.

Producer services form a core driver for the upgrading of the manufacturing sector and the establishment of a modernized industrial system in China.

In order to enhance the quality and capacity of producer services, the country needs to expand the opening-up of the service sector, further loosen restrictions, deepen regulatory reforms and improve policies so as to better integrate modern services with advanced manufacturing and modern agriculture.

It is especially important to integrate the manufacturing sector with the service sector, and develop smart, green and service-oriented manufacturing.

Therefore, it must make the service sector more digitalized, and develop better standards for services to promote higher quality and stronger brands.