Huang Qunhui: Building a Complete, Advanced, and Safe Modern Industrial System Traditional Industries | Industries | Systems
The first meeting of the 20th Central Committee of Finance and Economics, recently held, proposed that "the modern industrial system is the material and technological foundation of a modern country, and the focus of economic development must be on the real economy to provide strong material support for achieving the second centenary goal.". Accelerating the construction of a modern industrial system with integrity, progressiveness and security supported by the real economy is a major strategic task to promote Chinese path to modernization, and a key measure for China to actively respond to the unprecedented changes in the world in a century and win the initiative in competition.
From the perspective of industry classification, the general sense of the real economy should include industries such as manufacturing, agriculture, construction, and mining, among which the most core and main part is manufacturing. The main problem with the trend of "shifting from reality to virtuality" in the economy is that a large number of factors cannot effectively flow to the real economy sectors such as manufacturing. Especially, the repeated circulation of funds within the financial industry significantly increases the financing cost of the real economy, thereby hindering its healthy development. Building a modern industrial system supported by the real economy means forming a virtuous circle of "science and technology industry finance" around the high-quality development of the real economy, so that the contribution of scientific and technological innovation in the development of the real economy will continue to improve, and the ability of modern finance to effectively serve the development of the real economy will continue to strengthen, forming a modern industrial system that innovation drives the development of the real economy and finance better serves the real economy, and improving the integrity, progressiveness and security of the modern industrial system in a targeted manner.
Consolidate the advantages of a complete manufacturing system
China is currently the largest manufacturing country with the most complete industrial system, with 41 industrial categories, 207 industrial intermediate categories, and 666 industrial subcategories. It is the only country in the world that has all industrial categories listed in the United Nations Industrial Classification. China's manufacturing industry has ranked first in the world for 13 consecutive years, accounting for nearly 30% of the world's total. The complete manufacturing system and strong supporting capabilities are the huge advantages of China's industrial system, which ensure that China can effectively respond to supply shocks caused by external environmental changes and demonstrate its economic resilience. The formation of the completeness advantage of China's industrial system is the result of successfully promoting industrialization. After the establishment of the People's Republic of China, our party united and led the people to carry out socialist revolution, established the basic socialist system, and established an independent and relatively complete industrial system and national economic system. After more than 40 years of rapid development through reform and opening up, China's industrialization level has significantly improved, and a complete industrial system with huge production capacity has been built. It has become the world's largest manufacturing country and the world's second largest economy, successfully exploring an industrialization path that is in line with China's national conditions.
It should also be noted that the world's unprecedented great changes are deeply evolving, and the global industrial and supply chains are facing restructuring, which has impacted the completeness advantage of China's manufacturing system. On the one hand, some enterprises are beginning to transfer to Southeast Asia, which poses a risk of industry chain relocation and damage to the supporting capacity of the manufacturing industry; On the other hand, traditional industries are facing enormous pressure of transformation and upgrading, and in some places, traditional industries are simply eliminated as low-end industries through a "one size fits all" policy. To consolidate the completeness advantage of China's manufacturing industry, one is to follow the domestic version of the "Wild Goose Formation Model", support and guide the central, western and northeastern regions to rely on resource factor endowments, and fully consider the carrying capacity of resources and environment to undertake domestic industrial gradient transfer; The second is to actively promote the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries through technological transformation, and not simply equate traditional industries with low-end industries and demand their exit; Thirdly, we can draw on the experience of Japan's "parent factories" and encourage enterprises to build modern core factories in China, keeping their core manufacturing capabilities in the country; The fourth is to focus on the construction of industrial clusters, strengthen the technological and economic connections between various enterprises through clusters, improve the collaborative and supporting capabilities of the manufacturing industry, and consolidate the advantages of the completeness of the manufacturing system.
Promote the intelligent, green, and integrated development of the manufacturing industry
Modernization is based on the rise, dissemination, and application of modern science and technology as a prerequisite, driving force, and symbol. The modern industrial system should be established on the basis of advanced modern science and technology. Currently, a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation is accelerating. From the perspective of technological innovation development, emerging technologies such as new generation information technology, new energy, new materials, biotechnology, green and low-carbon technologies are reshaping the global technological landscape, industrial structure, and competitive landscape. The digital economy and the real economy are accelerating deep integration. From the perspective of the development direction of industrial organizations, the manufacturing and service industries are also deeply integrated, and the development of industrial integration represents an important trend in building a modern industrial system. In general, building a modern industrial system with progressiveness should reflect the development direction of intelligent, green and integrated manufacturing.
The manufacturing industry is the industry with the most active technological innovation activities, the richest technological innovation achievements, the most concentrated application of technological innovation, and the strongest spillover effect of technological innovation. The progressiveness of the manufacturing industry is the main embodiment of the progressiveness of the modern industrial system. At present, China has made significant achievements in building a strong manufacturing country. For example, in 2022, 65 manufacturing enterprises in China were shortlisted for the Fortune Global 500 list, with over 70000 specialized, refined, and new small and medium-sized enterprises. High tech manufacturing accounted for 15.5% of the added value of industries above designated size, while equipment manufacturing accounted for 31.8% of the added value of industries above designated size. 45 advanced manufacturing clusters have been cultivated, and the production of new energy vehicles and photovoltaics has remained the world's top for many consecutive years. However, it should also be noted that the development of China's manufacturing industry is still large but not strong. The overall technical level needs to be improved, and the basic capacity of the manufacturing industry is not strong. There are still shortcomings in the core basic parts, advanced basic processes, basic materials, basic technology, key basic software and other aspects. Some core technologies are still under the control of people. The industrial chain is generally at the middle and low end of the global value chain. Therefore, in order to build an advanced modern industrial system, it is necessary to accelerate the construction of a strong manufacturing country, a strong quality country, a strong aerospace country, a strong transportation country, a strong network country, and a digital China, and promote the development of China's manufacturing industry along the direction of intelligence, greening, and integration, achieving a transformation from large to strong. To further build a modern industrial system with progressiveness in the future, relevant measures need to be strengthened to comprehensively promote the construction of a manufacturing power. We need to deepen the implementation of industrial infrastructure reconstruction projects and major technological equipment research projects, improve national quality infrastructure, accelerate the construction of a modern infrastructure system, actively promote the development of strategic emerging industry integration clusters, focus on building digital industry clusters with international competitiveness, implement green manufacturing promotion projects, promote clean and low-carbon transformation in various fields of industry and transportation, promote deep integration of modern service industry with advanced manufacturing and modern agriculture, achieve deep integration of digital economy and real economy, accelerate the construction of world-class enterprises and specialized, refined, and new enterprises, and further optimize the development environment of industrial and supply chains.
In the new stage of development, industrial policies should focus on both development and security
For a long time, the basic positioning of industrial policies in various countries has been to promote the development of their own industries. However, the world has entered a new period of turbulence and transformation, with the rise of anti globalization trends, unilateralism and protectionism, weak global economic recovery, intensified global problems, and increasingly prominent industrial security issues. Some countries have already clarified the fundamental position of industrial security in the economic policy system.
On the new journey of comprehensively building a socialist modernized country, it is necessary to accelerate the construction of a new development pattern and enhance the security and initiative of development.Industrial policies should promote both development and safety, maintaining a moderate growth rate and improving the quality of industrial development by increasing total factor productivity, while also focusing on ensuring industrial safety. Therefore, the functional positioning of the industrial management system and policy system should not only stimulate and serve the development of the industry, but also expand and adjust to ensure and enhance the security of the industrial chain, in order to effectively respond to the potential safety risks caused by multiple factors such as insufficient supply capacity of "bottleneck" technology, rapid outward transfer of labor-intensive industries, and shocks to the supply of industrial basic raw materials and energy. To build a modern industrial system with security, it is of utmost importance to maintain industrial security, accelerate the improvement of relevant laws and regulations on industrial security in China, and clarify that industrial security management is a prerequisite and fundamental work for various industrial policies, science and technology policies, competition policies, and trade policies in China; We need to accelerate the establishment of an industrial security management system with clear rights and responsibilities and close collaboration among multiple departments, improve the strategic decision-making and departmental coordination mechanisms for industrial security, and promote development and security coordination through departmental coordination; Improve the industrial development assessment and industrial security early warning system, build professional industrial chain security assessment teams and institutions, and develop the theoretical and methodological system of industrial security assessment in China. Of course, emphasizing the security of a modern industrial system does not mean working behind closed doors, but actively exploring ways to effectively enhance the national industrial security level and enhance the resilience of the industrial and supply chains in an open economic system.
What needs to be clear is that the integrity, progressiveness and security of the modern industrial system are closely linked, integrity and progressiveness can promote and enhance the security of the industrial system, and security is the premise and guarantee of building an integrated and progressiveness industrial system. To build a modern industrial system supported by the real economy, we need to unify the three, promote them in a coordinated manner, continuously improve the integrity of the industrial system, focus on building a number of new growth engines, enhance the resilience and security level of the industrial and supply chains, and consolidate the material foundation of modernization construction.
