Tag: quality

Advanced manufacturing magnet for foreign firms amid upgrades

Daimler trucks are displayed during the 6th China International Import Expo in Shanghai in November. PHOTO/CHINA DAILY

BEIJING — China’s advanced manufacturing is attracting the attention of foreign-invested companies amid an innovation-led upgrade of the nation’s industrial chain.

“We see booming innovations in areas including new energy vehicles, and connected and automated driving trucks in China, and we consider China a place to pursue the development and application of such future-oriented products,” said Holger Scherr, president and CEO of Beijing Foton Daimler Automotive Co Ltd, and head of the Mercedes-Benz business unit.

David Fan, executive vice-president and China president of Japan-based auto parts supplier Marelli, also pointed to the growing innovation capabilities of the Chinese market as one of the important reasons for the country’s market and supply chain having an irreplaceable role for Marelli.

China’s manufacturing sector has remained a land of opportunity for foreign-invested companies over the years for its manufacturing prowess and the most comprehensive industrial chain in the world. In 2023, foreign investment into the sector accounted for 27.9 percent of the total, up 1.6 percentage points from the previous year, official data showed.

This year, the country has put developing new quality productive forces — featuring high-tech, high efficiency and high quality — atop its agenda.

The upgrade of industrial and supply chains is among the three aspects, that the development of new quality productive forces will cover, said Zhang Qingjie, head of digital enablement and head of AI at KPMG China.

Some foreign-invested companies have already noticed the gradual repositioning of China’s industrial chain, and are adopting a preemptive strategy to tap into the shift.

“We plan to promote a model of inverter compressors for heat pumps this year in Europe. The model is developed through a technology platform that we built in China, reflecting the change of the Chinese market’s core competitiveness from a comprehensive supply chain to an innovation-oriented one,” said Xu Yang, president of the China unit at Danfoss, a Denmark-based energy efficiency solutions company.

Xu said the company has been actively leveraging China’s innovation capability and improving its smart manufacturing. In April, Danfoss will launch construction of the second phase of its Haiyan campus in Zhejiang province, which is its largest manufacturing base in China, according to Xu.

China’s development of new quality productive forces injects new impetus to global growth: FM

A visitor looks at a robot arm displayed at the first China International Supply Chain Expo (CISCE), which kicked off in Beijing on November 28, 2023. Among the exhibitors, 26 percent are international companies, with 36 percent of that group coming from Europe and the US. Global companies from more than 50 countries and regions are participating in the event. Photo: VCG

A visitor looks at a robot arm displayed at the first China International Supply Chain Expo (CISCE), which kicked off in Beijing on November 28, 2023. Among the exhibitors, 26 percent are international companies, with 36 percent of that group coming from Europe and the US. Global companies from more than 50 countries and regions are participating in the event. Photo: VCG

China’s development of new quality productive forces is creating new products, new technology and new business models, which will broaden the room for global economic sharing and mutual development, injecting impetus into the world’s development, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said on Wednesday.

High-quality development is the first and foremost task of transforming China into a modern socialist country in all respects, while developing new quality productive forces is an intrinsic requirement for promoting high-quality growth in China, Lin said.

The key for developing new quality productive forces is enhancing the country’s self-innovation capability. Driven by the strategy of innovation-driven development, China has consolidated a series of achievements in areas including aviation, quantum computing and nuclear power. Notable progress has been made in developing China into an innovation country. All of these will not only better meet China’s domestic needs but also bring benefits to other countries and peoples, Lin said.

The spokesperson gave the example of clean energy technology. China is firmly committed to promoting energy reform, with the development of clean energy listed as a priority. 

In 2023, a total of 510 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity was newly installed around the world in 2023, with China contributing over 50 percent. Meanwhile, China has produced and sold more than 60 percent of the world’s new energy vehicles, official data showed.

Chinese clean energy enterprises are actively investing in Southeast Asia, with Vietnam already been a major export destination for China’s wind power technology and Thailand an important photovoltaic product manufacturing base. China is also supporting Middle Eastern and African countries’ energy transition, Lin added.

In addition, China’s development of new quality productive forces in digital economy and artificial intelligence has played an important role in driving global growth and boosting technological reform in many countries, Lin said.

In 2023, China successfully achieved major social and economic development goals, and its contribution to global GDP growth reached over 30 percent, Lin said, noting that China will continue to promote high-level opening up in 2024 to create favorable conditions for developing new quality productive forces.

Global Times