Greater Heed to Accelerating Development of Major Equipment Industry: Commentary

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, August 18, 2003

Greater Heed to Accelerating Development of Major Equipment Industry: Commentary

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People's Daily began from August 11 the discussion on "how to accelerate the development of major equipment industry". The discussion has aroused readers' interest, many personages have taken an active part in the discussion and freely expressed their opinions.

The reason why they are so concerned about the problem is that the major equipment sector is an important basic industry, only with faster development of this industry is it possible to lay a solid material and technical foundation for the modernization drive and the improvement of people's living standards, to promote the augmentation of overall national strength and to provide reliable guarantee for the security of national defense.

The 16th National Congress of the Party calls for transforming the traditional industry with high and new technology and advanced applicable technology and energetically vitalizing the equipment manufacturing industry. This is an important strategic plan made by the Party Central Committee.

To build a well-off society in an all-round way requires a prerequisite for industrial modernization, advanced technologies and mighty equipment industries. Comprehensive enhancement of China's international competitiveness calls for a change from a big equipment-manufacturing country to a powerful equipment-manufacturing country.

Progress of productive forces is marked by progress in the means of production. The equipment manufacturing industry, which specializes in making the means of production, is an industry which exerts the most profound influence on the development of human society.

The development stages of human society were divided in accordance with the level of the equipment manufacturing industry, for instance, the Paleolithic Age and the Neolithic Age. The enormous increment of labor productivity due to the use of ironware marked the arrival of the feudal society; the Industrial Revolution, which marked the entry of human society into a modern society, began with the invention of the steam engine. The history of the development of the contemporary and modern society is the history of the development of equipment manufacturing industry. Facts have repeatedly proved that only with a mighty equipment manufacturing industry can there be a powerful economy and national defense.

The equipment sector, called the "mother machine" of the entire industry, is the foundation not only of the manufacturing industry, but also of other industries, and is closely associated with a country's economic development.

The equipment industry, particularly the major equipment sector, is characterized by a big elastic demand, a high industrial correlation degree, a strong impetus to economic growth and a high technological content, it is the foundation of a country's industrial modernization and a concentrated expression of the economic strength, and is an indication of the country's level of industrialization as well as its overall strength of economy, science and technology.

The equipment industry, which shoulders the heavy responsibility of equipping the various sectors of the national economy, is the backbone of the national economy and is a strategic industry that bears on the long-term interests of the country and the nation. It can be said that without a developed equipment industry, it would be impossible to realize the modernization of the economy and national defense.

Since the introduction of the reform and opening up policy, China's equipment industry has experienced fairly big development. Nevertheless, compared with developed countries, China still lags notably behind in terms of overall technical level, which still fails to meet the needs of the national economy. On the part of developed countries, information, software and high added value have been universally realized in their equipment industries.

China's equipment sector, particularly major equipment industry, has a large proportion of the assembly sector, its main industrial technology relies on foreign countries and its products of autonomous intellectual property rights are limited. China's equipment industrial enterprises are faced with the challenge of fierce competition on the international equipment market.

We should take note of both the gap and challenge, and opportunities and favorable conditions. At present, the accelerated development of China's economy and the quickening pace of the adjustment of industrial structure have raised tremendous demands on the equipment industry. With accession to the WTO (World Trade Organization) and wider opening to the outside world, China's equipment industry can develop international cooperation in a more extensive way and make better use of foreign technologies and management expertise. After years of development, the equipment industry has accumulated many experiences and has possessed a material and technological foundation for further development.

China's equipment industry, now in a crucial juncture of development, should and can become a new point of economic growth. The important thing for us is to fortify our confidence in, pay high attention to, and enhance our sense of urgency in speeding up the development of major equipment industry.

Party and government leaders at all levels and departments concerned should energetically support accelerating the development of the equipment industry and create a favorable policy environment for this end.

Equipment enterprises themselves should inspire their enthusiasm, engage in unceasing reform and innovation, seek survival and development through fierce market competition, seize opportunities and push for speed in cooperation with foreign countries, and think of catching up with and surpassing and striving to be the vanguard in deepening reforms and engaging in technical innovation.

This is a commentary carried by the People's Daily, August 18, and translated by People's Daily Online

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