China has revealed a very impactful ‘Made in China 2025 Plan’ to upgrade its manufacturing competence to that of the industrialized countries.
The plan is a new strategy from the Chinese leadership to provide technological superiority to the Chinese economy. According to the official media, the new plan is a guide to make the country a manufacturing super power.
Chinese state council communiqué has elaborated different features of the Plan. Innovation oriented, high end manufacturing is stressed.
The policy calls for making intelligent manufacturing with the help of innovation. At present China has the largest number of patent applications from 2013 onwards.
The state council report openly declared that the plan is an answer to the Industry 4.0 programme unveiled by the West, including Germany. Germany’s programme is aimed at maintaining its superiority in high tech industry.
Industry 4.0 integrates new developments like internet, virtual labs, cyber physical systems etc into the manufacturing sector. Integrating manufacturing with the internet is one of the critical policies that the plan proposes.
In its content, Make in China programme is aimed to catch up with the West in the new areas of manufacturing.
Though Chinese manufacturing is one of the largest in the world, it has many problems associated with typical developing economies.
It is known for large scale production and comparatively lower quality.
The new plan from China is not a good news for the developing countries. It is very protectionist, given the high level of progress the Asian power has achieved. For example, the programme in its name is rivals India’s Make in India Initiative.
Economic history shows that China can consolidate its present good economic performance through sophisticated technological improvement in the manufacturing sector.
The program was first mentioned by Prime Minister Premier Li Keqiang at the National People’s Congress early this month.
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