Team News Riveting
China will take at least 30 years to become a top manufacturing power like the US or Germany.
Miao Wei, the former industry minister, said the country needed to plug huge gaps in basic areas before it could rise to the level of the US or Germany. Bigger tax cuts and greater financial support also needed to lift manufacturing up the value chain, he added.
Miao Wei, who oversaw the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology for a decade before stepping down in August, listed a range of basic challenges to China’s manufacturing sector, including its weakness in foundational areas such as basic parts, materials and technologies.
Other problems were the foreign stranglehold on critical technology; greater uncertainty in getting access to core technologies and supply chains; and a “premature” decline in manufacturing’s share of the economy.
China’s manufacturing industry has made marked progress lately, but the general view that it is “big, but not strong” and “comprehensive, but not excellent” has not fundamentally changed, Miao said in a speech at the second plenary meeting of the fourth session of the 13th CPPCC National Committee.
The market-based pricing mechanism for production factors is not perfect, and the costs of energy, land and environmental protection don’t fully reflect the relationship between market supply and demand or the degree of resource scarcity. The tax burden on enterprises remains heavy, and financial support for the manufacturing sector urgently needs to be strengthened, Miao said.
