‘Made in China 2025’ all talk, no action and a waste of taxpayers’ money, says former finance minister Lou Jiwei
- China’s tech strategy was flawed from the start, according to the man who was finance minister from 2013 to 2016
- Government should not have chosen which industries to back and should trust the market, Lou says after ‘two sessions’ panel meeting
“Made in China 2025” has been a waste of taxpayers’ money, China’s former finance minister Lou Jiwei has said, as Beijing tones down its tech development strategy and nears reaching a trade deal with Washington.
“[Made in China] 2025 has been a lot of talking but very little was done,” Lou, chairman of the National Council for Social Security Fund, said on Wednesday on the sidelines of Beijing’s annual meeting of its policymaking bodies, or “two sessions”.
“There was no need to talk about the year 2025 in the first place,” he said. “[The government] wants industries to be at the top notch by then, but those industries are not predictable and the government should not have thought it had the ability to predict what is not foreseeable.”
Lou, who was finance minister from 2013 to 2016, was attending the meetings as a delegate of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, an advisory body for Beijing’s rubber-stamp legislature, the National People’s Congress.