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Zhengzhou has an efficient logistics system and rail cargo service.Photo: ImagineChina

Innovation drives policy

Quality takes precedence over quantity in city's new scheme. Reports by Cameron Frecklington

In Partnership WithGo China-ZHENGZHOU

Now that the Chinese public has been familiarised with the slogans "China dream" and "the new normal", another wide-reaching economic scheme is being disseminated: "Made in China 2025".

Much like the new normal, this scheme is rooted in an increased focus on quality over quantity, high-end manufacturing and innovation. With much of China's manufacturing headed inland, and Zhengzhou's growing location as a major logistics hub, the provincial capital of Henan province is well placed to capitalise on the country's manufacturing transition. 

China's lack of high-end manufacturing is a key concern for the government, which is well aware that traditional manufacturing methods are inefficient and produce goods often thought of as inferior in quality to products from countries such as Germany and Japan.

The "Made in China 2025" scheme plans to change all that by focusing on smart technology, mobile connectivity, big data and the internet of things. Industries to be promoted include biomedicine, hi-tech machinery and equipment (agricultural, aerospace and aviation, rail), new energy vehicles and information technology. 

Beijing-based internet giant Tencent Holdings last month announced that it will be partnering electronics manufacturer Foxconn and Zhengzhou car company China Harmony to produce smart cars. Foxconn has a factory in Zhengzhou that employs up to 300,000 workers and is in negotiations to build a second plant in the city to produce high-end phone displays.

While many of the mainland's traditional manufacturing bases have transitioned to automated manufacturing (Guangdong province in particular is investing heavily in robotics), the new inland manufacturing hubs will rely on human manpower in the short and medium terms. 

The problem is that China is sorely lacking in highly skilled workers. The central government is promoting vocational schools heavily as an alternative to universities. With most university students dreaming of that elusive high-paying white-collar job, this may be easier said than done, but it is encouraging that moves are being made to improve the quality of China's human capital in the manufacturing sector.

Once China's efforts to rebrand its "Made in China" image to "innovated in China" begin to bear fruit and create products of a higher quality for the Western world, where better to produce them than in a city that already has an efficient logistics system and a rail cargo service that can move goods to Europe in 15 days? 

This is all part of China's grand plan: open the west of the country, transform inland cities, urbanise and consume. The days of manufacturing being associated with billowing plumes of toxic smoke are fast dying; instead, high-end manufacturing will be a boon to inland areas and lift these cities up to first-tier status comparable with eastern cities Beijing and Shanghai. 

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