Lawmaker: Producers should lift global ops

A visitor plays games at the booth of TCL, a Chinese consumer electronics producer, at the CES in Las Vegas on Thursday. The show ends on Sunday. [Photo by Chang Jun/China Daily]

China's manufacturers should transition from exporting products to exporting industrial capacities, ramp up localized operations abroad and avoid trade barriers, as part of a broader push to expand their footprint overseas, said Li Dongsheng, founder and chairman of Chinese consumer electronics maker TCL Technology Group Corp.

The high-tech manufacturing sector has become an important driving force for China's high-quality development, said Li, who is a deputy to the 14th National People's Congress, China's top legislature.

He highlighted the significance of technological innovation and capital input in bolstering the development of high-tech manufacturing.

In his proposal to this year's two sessions, the annual meetings of China's top legislature and the top political advisory body, Li called for efforts to step up support for high-tech manufacturing enterprises in research and development input, improve financing environment, lower production costs and alleviate existing burdens on enterprises.

Against the backdrop of an anti-globalization wave, Chinese enterprises, Li said, should improve layout in global industrial and supply chains, speed up localization efforts, and leverage cutting-edge technologies to strengthen competitiveness in high-end manufacturing globally.

Noting most of Chinese manufacturing enterprises still face multiple challenges, such as trade frictions, compliance management and patent lawsuits in the process of going global, he suggested the country should offer support for Chinese enterprises that have expanded their presence overseas in aspects of legal aid, policy advisory, patent litigation services and cross-border investments.

Data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology showed China accounted for nearly 30 percent of the global manufacturing output in 2021, up from 22.5 percent in 2012, and maintained its title as the world's largest manufacturing country.

TCL is accelerating steps to strengthen its capacity in global operations, with a focus on three core business segments covering intelligent terminals, semiconductor displays and new energy photovoltaics.

"Currently, our intelligent terminals unit has established production bases in Vietnam, Poland, Mexico, Brazil and India, and we will further improve localized production and operations. In terms of semiconductor displays, the plant owned by TCL China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co Ltd in India has started operations. We plan to strengthen our global layout in industrial chains, marketing and R&D in the future," Li said.

TCL has set up photovoltaic cell and module factories in Malaysia, the Philippines and Mexico through joint ventures, and it will explore the possibility of expanding the photovoltaic industry in overseas markets.

Jie Meijuan, general manager of the consumer electronics department at Beijing-based market consultancy All View Cloud or AVC, said, "It is an irreversible trend that Chinese consumer electronics and home appliance makers are stepping up their operations in the global market to improve competitiveness and foster a new growth engine for their longer-term development."

Enhancing global operational capacity will help Chinese high-tech manufacturing enterprises better utilize global resources, and promote the upgrade of China's manufacturing, she added.