An aerial drone photo taken on July 5, 2024 shows a view of Macao Tower, and Hengqing in Zhuhai City in south China's Guangdong Province. (Photo by Cheong Kam Ka/Xinhua)
BEIJING, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- Looking back at the year 2024, China has maintained its focus on real economy as a bedrock of development, moving towards innovation and scaling new breakthroughs in intelligence, in a bid to promote high-quality development of modern industry.
-- Emerging industries rapidly rise
Since 2024, active efforts have been made to lay out emerging industries such as low-altitude economy, commercial space industry, humanoid robots and biomanufacturing, accelerating the formation of a diverse array of new growth drivers.
In the first 11 months, the added value of high-tech manufacturing industry above designated size went up 9 percent year on year, whereas the investment in high-tech industries increased 8.8 percent year on year, outpacing the overall investment growth rate significantly, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
Such achievements are results of a series of enhanced supportive measures. In January 2024, China released a guideline for the innovative development of future industries, which refer to the emerging industries that are integrated with cutting-edge technologies.
The document emphasized the need for forward-thinking planning and deployment, highlighting six key fields including future-oriented manufacturing, information, materials, energy, space and health.
Various regions and departments have been consistently supporting the growth of emerging industries through measures including the establishment of dedicated funds, provision of tax incentives, as well as improved fiscal allocation.
China's economy is at a crucial phase of transformation and upgrade, according to Guan Bing, an expert with the China Center for Information Industry Development under China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).
With rapid advancements in sectors like artificial intelligence, new energy, new materials and biotechnology, along with the ongoing breakthroughs in fields such as low-altitude economy, brain-inspired intelligence, quantum information technology, deep-sea and aerospace exploration, as well as hydrogen energy and energy storage, new drivers of economic growth will keep emerging, according to Guan.
-- Traditional industries evolve with intelligence
An increasing number of enterprises are now opting to expedite their transition towards high-end, intelligent and green operations.
421 digitalized workshops and smart factories in China have been cultivated as national-level smart manufacturing demonstration factories, according to data from the MIIT. The country has also developed 700 high-level 5G factories and 1,383 newly-cultivated green factories of national level. The industrial Internet identification and resolution system now serves over 450,000 businesses.
During the upgrading of industries, the integration of digital technology and real economy is increasingly deepening.
China's 5G standard essential patent declarations account for 42 percent of the global total. The number of 5G base stations in China exceeded 4.19 million by the end of November 2024. The scale of computing power in the country reached 246 EFLOPS, ranking among the top in the world.
With breakthroughs in digital technology and the reinforcement of digital infrastructure, the supply of data resources is continuously growing richer. The NBS reports that by July 2024, 243 local governments at provincial and municipal levels had established open platforms for government data.
The integration of digital technology into real economy, which involves introducing data elements and driving industrial digital transformation, promises to ignite innovation within the real economy, raise productivity and improve the quality and efficiency of economic growth, according to Xin Yongfei, director of the policy and economic research institute of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology.
-- Integration between technology, industry
The breakthroughs made in establishing a modern industrial system are powered by China's burgeoning innovative capacity and the integration of sci-tech with industry.
Throughout the year, efforts have been intensified to sustain increase in high-quality sci-tech supplies, accelerate construction of high-level innovation ecosystem, and promote efficient and continuous conversion of industrial breakthroughs.
The Global Innovation Index 2024 ranks China the 11th among the world's most innovative economies, up one spot from the previous year, which has made China one of the fastest risers over the past decade.
Thanks to supply and demand advantages, as well as the deep integration of industry, academia, research and application, promising technologies from the innovation chain have been continuously transformed into new applications in the industrial chain.
Data from the MIIT shows that, as of 2024, the number of national manufacturing innovation centers reached 33 and high-tech enterprises 463,000. China has cumulatively cultivated over 140,000 specialized, high-end and innovation-driven small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), over one-tenth of which have evolved into "little giant" firms. 1,557 companies have been listed as individual champion enterprises in the manufacturing sector. National-level distinctive industrial clusters of SMEs now totals 300.
The Central Economic Work Conference said that China should take steps to make scientific and technological innovation drive the development of new quality productive forces and build a modernized industrial system, which outlined a clear direction for industrial layout and development in 2025.
In the future, the landscape of Chinese modernization will transform at an impressive pace, with traditional industries undergoing significant upgrades and emerging sectors rapidly matures, stimulating economic recovery, fostering structural innovation, and improving quality and efficiency of development. (Edited by Yu Huichen with Xinhua Silk Road, yuhuichen@xinhua.org)
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