China remains the largest manufacturing country

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As the largest manufacturing country, China will be committed to implementing the innovation-driven strategy and deepening industrial reform, said Miao Wei, Minister of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), on Thursday.

Industry, information and communication technology sectors maintain steady growth

According to Miao, China’s competitiveness of high-end manufacturing and Internet industries has been further strengthened.

The latest statistics from the MIIT show that China’s industrial value grew by 6.7 percent annually between 2013 and 2016, ranking first among the world's major economies. The annual industrial value added grew from 20 trillion yuan (about three trillion US dollars) in 2012 to 24.8 trillion yuan in 2016.

Minister Miao Wei/Xinhua Photo

As the second largest economy in terms of Internet industry scale, China’s ICT service industry generated over 2.4 trillion yuan in revenue in 2016, up by 80 percent from 2012, said Miao. The information consumption indirectly contributed revenue of over 10 trillion yuan to the economic growth.

Innovation capacity enhanced significantly

China will continue to implement the strategy of innovation-driven development and promote mass entrepreneurship and innovation, emphasized Miao at the press conference.

According to the latest statistics from the Ministry of Science and Technology, the scientific and technological contribution increased to 56.2 percent in China's economic growth in 2016. The added value of the high-tech industries grew by 11.3 percent from 2013 to 2016.

In 2015, China issued the “China Manufacturing 2015” and “Internet+” strategies to encourage intelligent manufacturing and Internet industries. Over the past few years, China has made a lot of achievement in a series of fields, said Miao.

China will deepen industrial reform /Xinhua Photo

So far, 35 provincial manufacturing innovation centers have been set up. Great breakthroughs were also achieved especially in the field of science and technology, such as the successful launch of the Tiangong-2 space lab, the commissioning of the deep-sea manned submersible Jiaolong and of the 500-meter-aperture spherical telescope (FAST) Tianyan.

Supple-side reform moving ahead steadily

China has exceeded the targets set for overcapacity reduction with significant achievements especially in cutting overcapacity and decreasing cost, said Miao.

The steel and coal production capacity was cut respectively by over 65 million tons and 290 million tons in 2016. As of now, the planned target of reducing 50 million tons of steel capacity has been accomplished in advance.

The cost was reduced effectively as well. For industrial enterprises above the designated size, the cost per 100 yuan main business income was 85.2 yuan last year, decreasing by 0.1 yuan as compared to 2015. For the first eight months of 2017, the cost dropped again by 0.12 yuan.

4G technology /Xinhua Photo

Rapid development of telecommunication industry

China has built the world’s largest fiber optic broadband and 4G network while developing the 5G network, said Miao.

By the end of this August, the number of 4G users reached 930 million, with a penetration rate of 67.2 percent. All villages and townships and 96 percent of administrative villages are connected to fixed broadband network, according to the latest statistics released by the MIIT.

China has also made remarkable achievements in constructing a faster network while lowering the tariff. Between 2015 and 2016, the tariff for fixed broadband service was reduced by 86.2 percent and for mobile service was reduced by 64.7 percent.

A batch of digital workshops and intelligent factories were established and new ways of intelligent manufacturing, which were proven mature, are taking shape, Miao added.