Why this is important to Wisconsin businesses: The convention highlighted China's hubs for machinery, aviation, biomedical and advanced materials manufacturing.
On Sept. 20, the 2019 World Manufacturing Convention opened in Hefei, Anhui Province. In President Xi’s letter to the opening of this convention, he remarked that greater global cooperation is necessary to maximize the opportunities arising from China's new round of scientific and industrial advances.
During this convention, a report was released stating Xi'an of Shaanxi Province and Changsha and Zhuzhou of Hunan Province were the top three clusters for high-end equipment manufacturing. After more than 60 years of development, Xi'an has formed an aviation industry chain that integrates aircraft research and development, aircraft manufacturing, test flights, product support, and education and training. Zhuzhou has become the largest rail transit equipment manufacturing industry base in China. Last year, the total industrial output of the city reached ¥125 billion ($18 billion). Meanwhile, Zhangjiang of Shanghai Province and Taizhou of Jiangsu Province have been listed as clusters for biological medical manufacturing. Ningbo of Zhejiang Province and Suzhou of Jiangsu Province have a high concentrations of advanced material manufacturing.
Although China's official manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index remained below 50 for the fourth consecutive month, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology stated that China has sound manufacturing fundamentals, and despite short-term challenges the country will not scale back its efforts to achieve industrial restructuring.
Despite the challenges, China's industrial growth rate remains within this year's target range of 5.5% to 6%. China's rapid advancements in digital economy and local companies' readiness to embrace cutting-edge internet, artificial intelligence, big data and cloud technologies will help expedite industrial upgrades. Meanwhile, statistics show that 51% of China's top 500 advanced manufacturing companies are engaged in mid-range or high-end equipment manufacturing. Private enterprises have become essential to China's advanced manufacturing, making up 54% of the top 500 companies. State-owned enterprises account for 32%, while the remainder are joint venture enterprises. Among them, 34 of the top 500 are in Shanghai, accounting for 7% of the total. These enterprises have outstanding performance in the high-end equipment and biomedical sectors.