On August 25, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang presided over a government meeting on manufacturing upgrades and economic restructuring in Beijing. Vice Premier Ma Kai, State Councilor, Secretary General of the State Council Yang Jing, State Councilor Wang Yong, government officials from related ministries and commissions and executives from more than 60 leading Chinese manufacturers were present at the meeting.
Chairman of LiuGong Group, Zeng Guang’an was invited as one of three corporate leaders to speak. Premier Li showed great interests in Zeng’s speech and the conversation lasted nearly 30 minutes. Chairman Zeng briefly introduced the Chinese CE industry and the development of LiuGong, and followed with five suggestions on how to transform and upgrade Chinese manufacturing. Those suggestions included improving the companies’ international competitiveness; supporting the technical innovation and intelligent manufacturing; enhancing the management from the industry associations and guiding the orderness of industry competitions; building a sustainable manufacturing workforce including company managers with global insights, world-class R&D teams and artisans; and moderately decreasing manufacturing costs, such as taxes, logistics and financing costs, etc.
Li made important remarks at the meeting.
"Manufacturing is the foundation of economic development," Li said. "China’s economic transformation and new industrialization rely on a strong manufacturing sector."
“But Chinese manufacturers as a whole are still at the mid- and low-end of international division of labor, they are big but not always strong,” Li said.
The country should briskly push forward its "Made in China 2025" strategy to bring the manufacturing to a new level, with measures to eliminate outdated capacity and techniques and step up shifts of economic engines, Li said.
The premier called on homegrown companies to improve diversity, quality and the brand value of their products, and vigorously follow international standards. Braving global competition will "prompt innovation and breakthroughs in core technology," Li said.
Manufacturers should foster new advantages of high quality and applicability of their products and wean-off the reliance on cheap costs, which will help more domestic brands become well-known around the globe, according to Li.
Highlighting innovation in management systems, Li asked companies to use Internet and big data technologies to reorganize their research and development, production and business patterns.
"Customized production should be promoted to meet diverse market demand," Li said.
(Note: Premier Li’s remarks in this article were quoting from Ecns.com “China eyes innovation to drive manufacturing upgrades” by Mo Hong’e, Xinhua.)
