Chinese Machinery Manufacturers Warned to Be RealisticChinese machine manufacturers have been warned not to blindly try to keep up with foreign multinationals, as a senior industrial official said home firms are too small to compete with their foreign counterparts.The Business Weekly of China Daily reported Sunday that the sector is in dire need of strong conglomerates to deal with challenges brought from the country's anticipated WTO entry, but it won't be that easy. According to Wu Xiaohua, director of the State Administration of Machine-Building Industry, about 30 to 50 large enterprise groups will emerge in the sector in the next 10 years. The firms will cover new product research and development, manufacturing, trading and financing. Sources with the administration said that there are over 40,000 firms on different levels are producing about 60,000 varieties of machinery products. "It is difficult and unnecessary to reinvigorate them all," Wu said. Efforts are to be concentrated on support of 250 to 300 key enterprises to promote their market competitiveness, he said. The machinery sector will focus development in a few key areas during the country's 10th five-year plan period (2001-2005), which include: equipment for agricultural modernization, national infrastructure construction and other industrial sectors, such as power generation, metallurgical and petrochemical projects; numerical-controlled machine tools vital for the entire manufacturing industry; cars and other vehicles. |
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