World Manufacturing Convention breathes new life into manufacturing sector

A visitor shops at the Exhibition of Import Commodity during the fourth World Manufacturing Convention in Hefei, capital of east China's Anhui Province, Nov. 19, 2021. The fourth World Manufacturing Convention kicked off Friday in Hefei. The four-day event, themed "innovation-driven, digitally empowered: global manufacturing industry aligned for high-quality growth," aims to promote high-quality manufacturing and deepen exchanges between China and the rest of the world. (Xinhua/Han Xu)

HEFEI, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- The fourth World Manufacturing Convention kicked off Friday in Hefei, capital of east China's Anhui Province, with a number of the country's cutting-edge technologies and products on display.

The four-day event, themed "innovation-driven, digitally empowered: global manufacturing industry aligned for high-quality growth," focuses on cutting-edge trends, displays the achievements in development, and explores a new path of high-quality manufacturing.

The event's topic is in line with the current trend of integrating the digital economy into the manufacturing sector, said Ma Jiantang, a senior official at the Development Research Center of the State Council, at the opening ceremony.

He added that China would further tap the potential of the digital economy to beef up the sector's high-quality development by reinforcing fundamental research in software, chips, core components, and speeding up infrastructure construction in 5G networks, big data centers, and industrial Internet.

Data showed that in October, China's industrial added value above the designated size grew by 3.5 percent year on year, 0.4 percentage points higher than the previous month.

Meanwhile, high-tech and equipment manufacturing value-added increased by 14.7 percent and 4.7 percent year-on-year, respectively.

China's manufacturing sector has faced various difficulties and challenges, and it has maintained a momentum of recovery, with new advancements in high-quality development, said Xin Guobin, vice minister of industry and information technology, at the opening ceremony.

"The development of the manufacturing sector has provided strong support for the steady growth of China's economy and made an important contribution to the recovery of the world economy," Xin said.

The convention, covering an area of over 43,000 square meters, included various industrial seminars, business matchmaking events, and exhibitions of new energy vehicles, intelligent manufacturing, imported products, among others.

The event offers a broad platform for deeper cooperation in global manufacturing and sustainable development, especially at a time when the world supply chain is hindered by the pandemic, said Christian Wulff, global chairman of the Global Alliance of Small and Medium Enterprises.

In the future, China will accelerate perfecting data transaction regulations and supervision framework to cultivate new forms of data service and promote further opening up in the area, said Ma.

According to the organizing committee, the convention has attracted 800 guests, including foreign diplomats, officials of relevant international organizations, and senior managers from Global Fortune 500 companies.

A total of 1,752 projects with investments of 1.8 trillion yuan (around 282 billion U.S. dollars) were signed at the previous three conventions. More than 80 percent of them kicked off construction by the end of October 2021.