China urged to fix services ‘weak link’, increase investment in zero-to-one innovation
- Ex-Chongqing mayor Huang Qifan says an underinvestment in original innovation, as well as a services trade deficit, should be addressed
- China is seeking to boost its position in global value chains, while also seeking technological breakthroughs amid the heightened US tech war
Amid China’s quest to extract more economic potential, the world’s second-largest economy should strengthen inadequacies in the services sector as well as original innovation, urged a former high-ranking official known for his economic insights.
The underdevelopment in tertiary industries that serve manufacturers is sapping the growth momentum of subsectors from the digital economy to decarbonisation, said former Chongqing mayor Huang Qifan.
The lag is associated with underinvestment in zero-to-one innovation, which lead to technological breakthroughs or the reshaping of an industry, added Huang, who also worked as a senior official running Shanghai’s economy in the 1990s.
“[The underdevelopment in the producer service sectors] is a weak link in our economy, despite our strengths in agriculture and complete manufacturing sectors,” Huang, who served as mayor of the southwestern municipality of Chongqing from 2010 to 2016, told a seminar in Shanghai on Saturday.
“We must increase the weight of producer services and trade in services in our economy and foreign trade.”
