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China’s Made in China 2025 plan, unveiled in 2015, was a blueprint to push for advanced manufacturing from robotics, aerospace and new materials to new energy vehicles to replace imports, but it attracted a barrage of criticisms from the US and European Union. Photo: Xinhua

China to pursue shared platforms to upgrade manufacturing sector after shelving ‘Made in China 2025’

  • Ministry of Industry and Information Technology unveils guidelines on promoting the upgrading of the country’s vast manufacturing system
  • The ‘Made in China 2025’ plan to upgrade China’s hi-tech industries drew a barrage of criticism from the United States and European Union

China has unveiled a new plan to upgrade the country’s powerful manufacturing apparatus with a focus on forging “shared platforms” to lift efficiency and reduce idle capacity after it shelved its controversial “Made in China 2025” plan under pressure from the United States and European Union.

Some 20 “shared manufacturing platforms with strong innovation capability and great industry influence” will be built up by 2022 and then turned into “key drivers for high-quality growth” by 2025, according to guidelines published this week by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

While the ministry did not specify the platforms or name any potential candidates, it clarified that the plan involved sharing production facilities, tools and equipment as well as intellectual resources such as product design and development capabilities. Services relating to manufacturing such as storage space and logistics could also be shared, the guidelines said.

It is of great significance to develop, cultivate, expand and promote the high-quality development of the manufacturing industry
Ministry of Industry and Information Technology

It is hoped the plan will boost resource allocation, improve efficiency and cut idle capacity among large, medium and small businesses.

“It is of great significance to develop, cultivate, expand and promote the high-quality development of the manufacturing industry,” the guidelines read.

The directive is the latest move by the central government to lift its export driven economy up the value chain as China aims to be more self-sufficient and less dependent on foreign technology and resources amid a trade war with the US. 

China’s State Information Centre, a think tank under the National Development and Reform Commission, the economic planner, published a report last year on shared manufacturing, saying China had to review its strategy in advanced manufacturing in the context of competition from the likes of US, Germany and Britain.

“Developed countries like United States, Germany and the United Kingdom have seized the opportunity of a new round of industrial revolution. In a new round of manufacturing innovation, China, as a global manufacturing powerhouse, is facing enormous opportunities and severe challenges, and it is also in an important stage of transformation and upgrading,” the report said.

China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba runs a Tao Factory, a platform that connects merchants to producers for global brands such as Zara and Louis Vuitton, is listed by the report as an example of enabling shared resources in manufacturing. Alibaba is the owner of the South China Morning Post.

The shared manufacturing concept revolves around the idea of a shared economy, although WeWork, the US firm that focuses on shared workspaces for technology start-ups and services for other enterprises, has suffered heavy losses in China.

In a new round of manufacturing innovation, China, as a global manufacturing powerhouse, is facing enormous opportunities and severe challenges, and it is also in an important stage of transformation and upgrading
China’s State Information Centre
China’s Made in China 2025 plan, unveiled in 2015, was a blueprint to push for advanced manufacturing from robotics, aerospace and new materials to new energy vehicles to replace imports, but it attracted a barrage of criticisms from the US and European Union.

China’s biggest trading partners complained that Beijing’s industrial policy created overcapacity and distorted the market. Beijing later said Made in China 2025 was open to its trading partners, but it has since refrained from publicly promoting the plan.

Last week, China passed a new law aimed at shrinking direct government intervention in market activities and minimising “the direct allocation of government resources to the market” in a bid to demonstrate to foreign firms that it is committed to creating a level playing field.

For more insights into China tech, sign up for our tech newsletters, subscribe to our Inside China Tech podcast, and download the comprehensive 2019 China Internet Report. Also roam China Tech City, an award-winning interactive digital map at our sister site Abacus.

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