China becomes the world's largest manufacturing country for the eleventh consecutive year

In 2020, the value added of China's industry will reach 31.3 trillion yuan, contributing nearly 30% of the world's manufacturing industry. "During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, the average growth rate of the added value of high-tech manufacturing reached 10.4%, 4.9 percentage points higher than the average growth rate of the added value of the regulated industry. The value added of the information transmission, software and information technology service industry increased significantly, from about RMB 1.8 trillion to RMB 3.8 trillion.

"The successful completion of the main objectives of building a strong manufacturing country and a strong network country in China in the 13th Five-Year Plan was also reflected in the areas of innovation capability, information infrastructure construction, integration of information technology and industrialization, and green and low-carbon development of industry. In terms of innovation capacity, from 2016 to 2019, the investment in R&D expenditure by industrial enterprises above the scale increased by 27.7%. From the construction of information infrastructure, by the end of 2020, the penetration rate of fixed broadband households in China will reach 96% and the penetration rate of mobile broadband users will reach 108%. In terms of the integration of information technology and industrialisation, by the end of 2020, the penetration rate of digital R&D and design tools in key industry backbone enterprises reached 73%, 11 percentage points higher than in 2015. From the green and low-carbon development of industry, from 2016 to 2020, the cumulative energy consumption per unit of industrial added value of enterprises above the scale will drop by about 16 percent.

Xiao Yaqing introduced that the upgrading of China's industrial structure during the "13th Five-Year Plan" period is mainly manifested in three aspects. Firstly, the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries has been accelerated. China has completed the target of removing 150 million tons of production capacity in the iron and steel industry two years ahead of the 13th Five-Year Plan, and the total crude steel production capacity of "zombie enterprises" has been withdrawn from 64.74 million tons. A total of 2,121 green factories, 171 green industrial parks and 189 green supply chain enterprises have been built, and a green manufacturing system has taken initial shape.

Secondly, the development of strategic emerging industries has been accelerated, and new breakthroughs have been made in frontier areas. In 2020, the added value of high-tech manufacturing and equipment manufacturing industries will account for 15.1% and 33.7% of the added value of regulated industries respectively, becoming an important force in leading the optimization and upgrading of industrial structure.

Third, the industrial innovation capacity has been significantly enhanced, and a number of key technologies and products have made major breakthroughs. "During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, China has built 17 national manufacturing innovation centres. The technical level of aerospace equipment has been significantly improved, deep-sea marine engineering equipment and high-tech ships are developing rapidly, and the number of patents in important areas of artificial intelligence, such as face recognition, is in the first echelon worldwide.

In addition, China's 5G commercialization has taken solid steps. By the end of 2020, a total of 718,000 5G base stations will be opened and the number of 5G mobile phone terminal connections will exceed 200 million households. China's average 5G household mobile internet access traffic is about 50% higher than that of 4G users, and the unit price has dropped by 46% in two years.

In addition to building the world's largest 5G network, China also built the world's largest fibre-optic and 4G network during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, with more than 100 million households covered by gigabit fibre. Through in-depth promotion of universal telecoms services, the proportion of 4G and fibre optic connections in administrative villages exceeded 99.9%. China has continued to carry out special actions to increase network speed and reduce tariffs, and since the 13th Five-Year Plan, the average tariff level for fixed broadband and mobile phone traffic in China has dropped by more than 95%.