China giving new meaning to 'world factory'

The transfer of a number of labor-intensive industries is not necessarily having negative impact on China's manufacturing industry, Wang Zhile, director of Research Center on Transnational Corporations of Ministry of Commerce said.

He added, "From the point of view of cost-effective, it forced manufacturing industry to undergo transformation, and upgrade to the more high-end manufacturing industry. China's manufacturing industry is currently facing such challenges. Can they survive transformation and upgrading, and focus on energy saving and environmental protection?"
"China as a 'world factory' is not necessarily a good thing. In a certain period of time, we are more willing to play the role of a big manufacturing country. There is not much interest and benefits for being the world processing factory, and we do not have to be too concerned about the pros and cons of such status. In contrast, what's more worthy of attention is the sustainable development of China's manufacturing capabilities and the ability to innovate, and its core is to change the personnel training system, and raise more innovative talents. "said Zhang Hanlin, professor at University of International Business and Economics, and director of the China WTO Research Institute.

Zong Qinghou, Chairman and CEO of Wahaha Group, said China should not be the "factory of the world" and "cheap factory" any more. "Others design product, we put on someone else's label and take orders to produce, and such way of doing foreign trade is actually very simple, but the development of the domestic market is not so easy. Chinese manufacturing enterprises need to improve its competitiveness, to innovate, and raise the level of technology. "

"Right now, economic downturn in Europe and the United States reduced demand for our exports, and some people feel panic, but in fact, it gave us a good opportunity to re-examine ourselves and seek the development." Zong said.

In fact, some Chinese manufacturing enterprises are on the path of scientific and technological innovation, transformation and upgrading.
Read the Chinese version:中国“世界工厂”地位10年内不会动摇
Source:China Economic Weekly

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