(Source: China Economic Times July 1, 2025)
Recently, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized during an inspection in Henan that "manufacturing is an important pillar of the national economy" and "modern manufacturing cannot be separated from technological empowerment. It is necessary to vigorously strengthen technological research and follow the development path of independent innovation." General Secretary Xi Jinping’s speech not only fully affirmed the strategic position of manufacturing in the national economy and people’s livelihood, but also pointed out the direction for the development of modern manufacturing.
The high-end, intelligent and green manufacturing industry is not only the core force to cope with the challenges of the complex international situation, but also the key engine to promote the transformation and upgrading of China's economy and enhance its international competitiveness. Promoting the digital transformation of the manufacturing industry is the only way to empower modern manufacturing with technology. It is an important measure to promote new industrialization and build a modern industrial system.
Driven by policy traction, technology iteration and market demand, my country's manufacturing industry is undergoing unprecedented digital transformation, gradually moving from local breakthroughs to systematic leaps. The deep integration of new generation digital technology and manufacturing processes has promoted the continuous gathering of digital elements into manufacturing companies, helping my country's manufacturing industry achieve leapfrog development at key nodes. At present, the digitalization of the manufacturing industry is characterized by the coordinated advancement of policies, the coordinated development of regional and enterprise differentiation, the accelerated layout of infrastructure, and the continuous emergence of new products and new models, creating a multi-level and all-round transformation pattern.
Top-level design and supporting policies work together
Accelerate the digital transformation of manufacturing
From the perspective of the domestic development environment, the digital transformation of China's manufacturing industry has entered the deepening stage of "system reconstruction and ecological co-construction", showing the distinctive characteristics of "scenario-based technological breakthroughs, verticalization of industry applications, and tiered regional development". Under the framework of the "14th Five-Year Plan" for Intelligent Manufacturing Development, the "Manufacturing Digital Transformation Action Plan" and the supporting "Guidelines for Equipment Updating and Technical Transformation in Key Industrial Sectors" and other policies form a "combination punch" to promote the deep integration of digital technology and the entire manufacturing chain, laying the foundation for strategic breakthroughs in the final year of the "14th Five-Year Plan". The 2025 "Government Work Report" proposes to "accelerate the digital transformation of the manufacturing industry, cultivate a group of service providers who understand both industry and digitalization, and increase support for the digital transformation of small and medium-sized enterprises." This series of policy designs is not only the strategic analysis and judgment of the Party Central Committee based on the trend of restructuring the global industrial chain, but also a systematic arrangement for coordinating the cultivation of new productive forces and the construction of a modern industrial system. It marks that the digital transformation of my country's manufacturing industry is moving from a partial, pilot-style single-point breakthrough to an overall, systematic, and in-depth integration. It provides a solid guarantee for promoting high-quality development of the manufacturing industry and enhancing global competitiveness.
Judging from the foreign environment, with breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, digital twins, cloud computing and other technologies, the traditional manufacturing model is being replaced by intelligent manufacturing systems. In the face of this change, developed economies such as the United States and Europe have adopted policies such as the Chip and Science Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the Net-Zero Industry Act. They not only increase their support for high-end manufacturing, but also pay more attention to promoting the digital and intelligent transformation of manufacturing. They aim to establish a leading advantage in global manufacturing competition through the systematic reconstruction of digital technology, reshape the dominance of the global industrial chain, and compete for the right to formulate rules and have a voice in the new round of industrial revolution. China's manufacturing industry must accelerate the pace of digital transformation, promote independent innovation to break through key bottlenecks, enhance independent controllability, and improve the digital construction of intelligent manufacturing and supply chains to enhance global competitiveness.
At the national level, the Party Central Committee and the State Council attach great importance to the digital transformation of the manufacturing industry and strive to build a comprehensive, coordinated and efficient policy system to enhance the core competitiveness of the manufacturing industry and promote the industry to become high-end, intelligent, and green. The policy orientation has changed from "promotion" to "acceleration", the top-level design has been increasingly improved, and multiple departments have intensively issued policy documents to provide systematic guidance for the digital transformation of the manufacturing industry. A series of policies have established a policy framework with clear layers, clear directions, and feasible implementation, providing solid policy support for the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry. At the local level, governments at all levels have launched a series of supporting policies based on regional industrial characteristics and development needs to accelerate the digitalization of the manufacturing industry.
The top-level design at the national level and the supporting policies at the local level complement each other and work together to make the policy system for the digital transformation of the manufacturing industry increasingly perfect. It not only provides a clear implementation path for "intelligent transformation, digital transformation, and network connection", but also lays a solid policy guarantee for the high-quality development of the manufacturing industry.
Differentiated and coordinated development of regions and enterprises
The digital upgrade path of manufacturing industry is clearer
With the deep integration of digital technology and manufacturing, various types of enterprises advance in layers according to their own characteristics, and each region relies on the tiered development of resource endowments, gradually forming a digital pattern of "coordinated development of large and medium-sized enterprises and tiered advancement in the east, middle and west", providing a clearer path for the high-quality transformation and upgrading of my country's manufacturing industry.
First, enterprises are promoted in layers to build a digital ecosystem in which "large enterprises lead and small and medium-sized enterprises collaborate".Leading enterprises rely on their strong digital technology application capabilities to actively build productive service platforms, create digital transformation benchmarks, and drive upstream and downstream enterprises to transform together with the industrial chain collaboration model. According to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, as of 2024, the number of "lighthouse factories" in my country has reached 72, accounting for 42% of the global total, ranking first in the world. These "lighthouse factories" have given full play to their role of demonstration and leadership, relying on the industrial Internet platform to accumulate experience and industry mechanisms, promote the digital transformation of key scenarios and the entire chain, and help the entire manufacturing industry move towards intelligent and flexible development. At the same time, small and medium-sized enterprises are implementing "small, fast, light and accurate" digital upgrades based on industry application scenarios, improving production efficiency and market competitiveness through low-cost and rapid deployment. The "China Small and Medium Enterprises Digital Transformation Report 2024" shows that 98.8% of small and medium-sized enterprises have initiated digital transformation, and more than 40% of enterprises have used digital means to optimize their operating models and achieve cost reduction and efficiency improvement.
The second is regional echelon development, forming a digital industry pattern in which the east, middle and west are jointly promoted.The digital transformation of my country's manufacturing industry has shown a tiered development trend with the eastern region taking the lead in breakthroughs, the central and western regions advancing collaboratively, and complementing each other's advantages. As a pioneering area for the digital economy, the eastern region relies on its advantages in technology, market, and supporting industrial chains to take the lead in the fields of information communications, artificial intelligence, and integrated circuits, forming a number of national-level advanced manufacturing clusters and driving the overall upgrade of the industrial chain. The central and western regions rely on national strategic projects such as "Eastern Digital and Western Computing" to accelerate the construction of computing infrastructure, improve the efficiency of data resource allocation, promote digital transformation based on local industrial characteristics, gradually narrow the digital development gap with the eastern region, and promote the coordinated development of digital transformation in the national manufacturing industry.
Continuous optimization of new digital infrastructure
The digital transformation of manufacturing industry is gaining momentum
With the accelerated development of 5G-A, artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing and other technologies, my country's new digital infrastructure continues to be optimized, and network coverage, computing power supply and industrial applications have all achieved leapfrog development.
First, network infrastructure construction has been continuously strengthened to support the intelligent development of the manufacturing industry.my country has built the world's leading optical fiber and broadband networks, and its network coverage has expanded from cities to rural and remote areas, providing high-quality connection capabilities for industrial digitalization. According to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, as of the end of 2024, the total number of Internet broadband access ports nationwide will reach 1.202 billion, including 1.16 billion optical fiber access ports, and more than 27 million 10GPON ports with gigabit network service capabilities. In addition, the number of 5G base stations has exceeded 4.14 million. 5G technology has been deeply integrated into 80 major categories of the national economy and accelerated its evolution to 5G-A, providing a faster and more stable network environment for the manufacturing industry.
Second, the industrial Internet identification analysis system continues to be improved to enhance the collaborative efficiency of the industrial chain.As a key support for the digital transformation of the manufacturing industry, the Industrial Internet accelerates the digitalization process of enterprises by improving equipment interconnection capabilities and optimizing production processes. At present, more than 340 industrial Internet platforms with industry influence have been cultivated across the country, with cumulative logo registrations exceeding 400 billion and serving more than 400,000 companies. The continuous improvement of the logo analysis system will help improve the collaborative efficiency of the industrial chain and promote the upgrading of the manufacturing industry in the direction of intelligence, networking, and flexibility.
Third, the computing power infrastructure has been steadily improved, providing the core driving force for the intelligent transformation of the manufacturing industry.Computing power has become a key productivity in the digital economy era. my country continues to increase its efforts in the construction of computing power infrastructure and maintains its leading position in the world. As of 2024, the National Industrial Internet Big Data Center system has covered 31 provinces, with a daily analysis volume of more than 150 million times, effectively improving the efficiency of data element circulation. At the same time, the total scale of my country's computing power center racks has exceeded 8.3 million standard racks, the total scale of computing power has reached 246EFlOPS, and there are more than 13,000 computing power application projects. It is widely used in key links such as intelligent manufacturing, product research and development, and quality inspection, injecting continuous momentum into digital transformation and upgrading.
Digital technology drives innovative development of manufacturing industry
New products and new models are constantly emerging
As a key engine to promote the high-quality development of the manufacturing industry, digital technologies such as big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and blockchain are accelerating into the core aspects of manufacturing R&D, production, and management. It not only promotes traditional industries to accelerate technological upgrading, but also spawns a series of new products, new business formats, and new models, helping my country's manufacturing industry to climb to the high end of the global value chain. In the field of new products, the trend of software and hardware integration and network interconnection is becoming more and more obvious. Digital and intelligent products such as smart terminals, industrial robots, and Internet of Vehicles are rapidly popularizing, reshaping the form of manufacturing products and the market structure. In terms of new business formats, the service-oriented manufacturing model ("product + service" integrated solution) is accelerating, and shared manufacturing (production lines, equipment resource sharing) is booming, promoting the efficient allocation of manufacturing resources and enhancing the overall competitiveness of the industry chain. In terms of new models, innovative models such as smart manufacturing (unmanned factories, black light factories), networked collaborative manufacturing (efficient linkage of supply chains), and personalized customization (mass customized production) are widely used to effectively improve production efficiency and market responsiveness. At the same time, new scenarios in the manufacturing industry continue to expand, and integrated innovation represented by "artificial intelligence +" has become a hot spot for growth. "Artificial intelligence + Internet of Things" can monitor equipment status in real time and improve smart operation and maintenance capabilities; "artificial intelligence + digital twins" make the production process more transparent and intelligent, greatly improving production efficiency. Data shows that there are more than 4,500 enterprises in the core artificial intelligence industry in my country, nearly 200 large generative artificial intelligence service models have been registered and launched, and the number of registered users has exceeded 600 million. The deep empowerment of digital technology is accelerating the advancement of my country's manufacturing industry to a higher level of intelligent and digital development.
(Zhang Xiaofeng is the deputy secretary of the Party Committee of the w88 casino and a professor at the National Institute of Opening-up; Li Youmei is a professor at the National Institute for Opening-up and the w88 casino of Economics at the w88 casino)
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