Top-level design of Made in China 2025 completed, ministry says

The top-level design of China’s Made in China 2025 strategy, the country’s manufacturing upgrade program, has been completed, Miao Wei, minister of industry and information technology, said on Tuesday, Shanghai Securities News reported.

According to Miao, a group of key landmark programs and projects have been launched in areas such as manufacturing innovation, intelligent manufacturing and green manufacturing, and the country has climbed to a new level in building a manufacturing powerhouse.

On August 30, 2016, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) announced China will set up around 40 national manufacturing innovation centers by 2025, according to Xinhua.

Miao said five national manufacturing innovation centers have been completed so far and 48 provincial manufacturing innovation centers have been nurtured, which has formed a manufacturing innovation system that takes the national innovation center as the core node and the provincial manufacturing innovation centers as important supplements.

In priority areas such as large aircraft, integrated circuit, new material, aircraft engine and gas turbine, 5G as well as new energy vehicles, positive results have also been achieved, Miao said.

Last year, a total of 331 major projects to strengthen industrial development got support from the state, according to the minister. Bottlenecks in some key areas such as the gear transmission system of high-speed train and pump seal used in nuclear power generation system have been preliminarily solved.

In the area of intelligent manufacturing, Miao said the comprehensive standardization and new model application of 428 intelligent manufacturing projects have made positive progress so far, 206 projects conducted pilot demonstrations, 22 national intelligent manufacturing standards have been released, and a number of digital workshop and smart factory have been initially built.

To bolster a green manufacturing system which takes green standard, green factory, green product, green industrial park and green supply chain as the core, the MIIT has supported a total of 225 major green manufacturing projects, Miao said.

The nation has also made great technological achievements in high-end equipment innovation projects, according to Miao. For instance, C919, China's first home-developed large passenger plane, made its maiden flight in Shanghai last May; the Chinese-made AG600, the world's largest amphibious aircraft, carried out its maiden flight last December; Blue Whale 1, the ultra-deep-water semisubmersible drilling rig, conducted successful tests in the South China Sea last May; and the CR400, with a maximum operating speed of 350 kilometers per hour, became the world's fastest wheeled train in commercial use.

To fully implement Made in China 2025 strategy, Miao said the MIIT will focus on the following works this year.

It will continue to boost the manufacturing innovation center construction projects, the projects to strengthen industrial development, intelligent manufacturing projects, green manufacturing projects and high-end equipment innovation projects.

It will set up ‘Made in China 2025’ national demonstration zone, nurture several world-class advanced manufacturing industry clusters and promote the integrative development of manufacturing sector and internet.

In addition, the ministry will improve the quality of manufacturing industry’s supply system and optimize the development environment of the industry.