People's Daily Online, Beijing, January 30 (Zhang Xiaohe). High-quality development will be promoted in the new era, revitalizing the real economy will be the focus of our work, and industry will become the main battlefield. In the beginning of the year, the world is paying attention to the development of China's real economy. Is there already a basic condition for turning to high quality development?
Before the two sessions in 2018, the State Council Information Office invited the head of multiple ministries and commissions to attend the press conference.
On the 30th, Miao Wei, Minister of Industry and Information Technology, said at the 2017 press conference held by the State Council Information Office on the issue of the development of industry and information industry which aroused public concern that in the past year China’s industrial operation has achieved steady progress which is better than expected and the industrial economy has had a new starting point for high-quality development; the information and communication industry has maintained rapid growth, and its supporting role for economic growth has been continuously enhanced, injecting confidence and motivation for the Chinese economy to move toward high-quality development.
Data 1: The development of industrial economy exceeds expectations.
Industry is the core of the real economy, and the recovery of the industrial economy has undoubtedly provided a stronger guarantee for the smooth development of the real economy.
Miao Wei said that with the continuous emergence of the influence of a series of policies and measures to promote industrial development in recent years, the industrial economy has achieved steady progress with improved quality and efficiency.
This is also reflected in a set of data. Industrial production is accelerating. In 2017, the added value of China's industries above designated size achieved a year-on-year increased of 6.6%, which has changed the trend of industrial value-added growth that had existed for seven consecutive years. Among them, the added value of the manufacturing industry increased by 7.2%, and the industrial added value of small and medium-sized industrial enterprises above designated size increased by 6.8%. The national industrial capacity utilization rate has also reached the best level of 77% in 5 years.
The quality of development is improving. In 2017, the energy consumption and water consumption per unit of industrial added value decreased by about 4.3% and 6% respectively. The profits of industries above designated size increased by 21% year-on-year, the best record in four years. The profit margin of the main business was 6.46%, also increasing by 0.54 percentage points year-on-year.
The confidence of the market is growing. The producer price index (PPI) increased by 6.3% year-on-year, ending a five-year decline. The Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) has remained at a 51% or higher which is within the expected range, and industrial enterprises above designated size achieved a 10.7% increase in export and delivery.
Data 2: The construction of a strong powerhouse reaches a new high.
At present, global manufacturing industries are undergoing deeper changes, and manufacturing industries have once again become the focus of global competition. Facing the pressure of both developed countries and emerging economies, accelerating the construction of a strong manufacturing country has become an urgent task for revitalizing the real economy.
"The 'Made in China 2025 Initiative' has been extensively carried forward. Manufacturing innovation center and other five major projects continue to be implemented. A number of major technical equipment have achieved significant improvement. High-tech manufacturing industries and emerging industries maintain rapid growth." Miao Wei introduced that a series of major measures are propelling the construction of a strong manufacturing country to a new level in 2017.
The data shows that the full implementation of "Made in China 2025 Initiative" has achieved remarkable results. In 2017, China has newly approved three national manufacturing innovation centers, and 48 provincial-level innovation centers have been cultivated; troublesome issues in key areas have been further alleviated, and 45 main products of high-end machine tool have reached or approached the international level, and C919 airliner, the passenger plane and amphibious aircraft AG600 successfully made the first flight.
The structural adjustment and optimization of the manufacturing industry has also accelerated. In 2017, the industrial added value of China's electronics industry and equipment manufacturing industry increased by 13.8% and 10.7% respectively, becoming the main force driving industrial growth this year. In addition, the consumption upgrade has also significantly enhanced the industrial development, and the industrial added value of the consumer goods increased by 7.6%.
High-tech manufacturing industries and emerging industries are growing rapidly. The added value of high-tech manufacturing industries increased by 13.4% year-on-year, 6.8 percentage points faster than the above-scale industries. Industrial robots increased by 68.1%. The production of new energy vehicles increased by 794,000, and the cumulative application volume exceeded 1.8 million units, ranking first in the world for three consecutive years. Production of construction machinery, air pollution control equipment, integrated circuits, and optoelectronic devices has accelerated.
Data 3: The supple-side structural reform has achieved remarkable results.
Industry is the main battlefield for supply-side structural reform. Miao Wei introduced that in the past year, the achievements of capacity reduction, de-stocking, deleveraging, cost reduction and improving underdeveloped areas have been significant.
In terms of capacity, the capacity reduction of 50 million tons of steel in 2017 was over-fulfilled, and the over capacity of 115 million tons steel was solved. 140 million tons of “substandard steel” was fully cleared, and the industry’s merger and reorganization to solve the problem of“zombie enterprises” were solidly carried out. The excess capacity of electrolytic aluminum, cement, flat glass and other industries was further resolved. The total profits of steel, nonferrous metals, cement, flat glass and other industries were increased by 178.9%, 27.5%, 94.4% and 81.3% respectively.
In terms of cost reduction, in 2017, we actively promoted the implementation of cost reduction policies and measures such as the reduction of taxation and fees, and urged all regions to cancel more than 200 various types of guarantee deposit projects, and alleviated the burdens of enterprises of over 170 billion yuan throughout the year.
In terms of deleveraging, by strengthening the integration of industry and finance, by the end of December 2017, the asset-liability ratio of industrial enterprises above designated size was 55.5%, decreased by 0.6 percentage points year-on-year.
In terms of improving underdeveloped areas, the technical transformation has been implemented steadily. The total investment of 644 major projects was nearly 400 billion yuan, and the investment in technological transformation accounted for 45.5% of the total industrial investment. The strategy of “increasing the variety, improving the quality, and creating the brand”has been implemented vigorously, and more than 5,000 products have realized selling with the“same line, same standard and same quality”no matter in the domestic market or exporting abroad . The relocation and transformation of dangerous chemical production enterprises in urban densely populated areas have been steadily advanced.
Data 4: A major step in the construction of a network powerhouse.
The report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China puts forward: "Promoting the deep integration of the Internet, big data, artificial intelligence and the real economy." This has pointed out the development direction for building a network powerhouse.
What is the achievement of China's network powerhouse building in 2017? The key words introduced by Miao Wei are“taking a big step”.
On the one hand, China's network speed-up and fee-reduction have continued to be promoted. Domestic long-distance and roaming charges for mobile phones have been completely abolished. Mobile traffic tariffs have continued to decrease, and international long-distance and SME special-line tariffs have fallen sharply. The speed acceleration and fee reduction have significantly promoted the usage of mobile traffic. In December, China's mobile traffic consumption of mobile users reached 2.69GB/household/month, a year-on-year increase of 2.5 times.
On the other hand, telecommunications and Internet services are growing at a high speed. In 2017, the total amount of China's telecom services increased by 76.4% year-on-year. The revenue of telecommunications services of basic telecommunications companies increased by 6.4% year-on-year. The revenue of Internet and related services industry increased by 20.8%.
In addition, the penetration rate of broadband users continues to rise, and the penetration rate of fixed broadband households has achieved the “13th Five-Year Plan” goal ahead of schedule. By the end of 2017, the total number of 4G users reached 997 million, accounting for 70.3% of mobile phone users, and the proportion of fixed Internet broadband with access speed of 50Mbps and above has increased to 70%.
Data 5: The integration of informationization and industrialization and the integration of the army and the people have been enhanced.
To achieve transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry and promote high-quality development, we must be good at improving the integration of informationization and industrializaion and the integration of the army and the people.
Miao Wei said that in the past year, China has cultivated a number of industrial Internet platforms, and the “participating the army” project has also been upgraded from general supporting products to the overall and sub-systems. the integration has been effectively promoted.
The pace of digital transformation of manufacturing industry, led by the development of manufacturing and Internet convergence, is accelerating. The data shows that the penetration rate of“mass entrepreneurship and innovation” platform of China's manufacturing backbone enterprises is 70%, and new modes such as customization, intelligent production, networked coordination, and service-oriented manufacturing are becoming more and more abundant. The information and software industry has developed rapidly. The annual software business revenue increased by 13.9% year-on-year, and the total profit increased by 15.8%. The scale of information consumption continued to grow. In 2017, it reached 4.5 trillion yuan, accounting for 10% of the final consumption expenditure.
The in-depth development of the integration of the army and the people has also achieved new results. In 2017, China's weapons and equipment research and production system was further opened. The “participating the army” project was upgraded from general supporting products to the overall and sub-systems. The first domestic aircraft carrier was launched smoothly, and the Tianzhou-1 cargo spacecraft was launched successfully.
Data 6: Overall coordination of regional development continues to improve
An important task of optimizing industrial structure in China is to enhance coordination of the regions. This has also been continuously improved in 2017.
According to the statistics provided by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, in 2017, the central region actively carried out industrial transfer, achieving a 7.9% year-on-year increase of the added value of industrial enterprises that above designated size, and the growth rate increased by 0.4 percentage points year-on-year, leading in the four regions.
The industrial economic benefits of the western region have achieved a remarkable recovery. Affected by the improvement of the structure of supplying and demanding of the energy and raw materials industry and the sharp increase in prices, the profits of Gansu and Xinjiang increased by 1.11 times and 1.05 times respectively compared with those of the same period of last year and the profits of industries above designated size in the western region increased by 47.2% year-on-year.
The industrial economy in the Northeast has also improved significantly. The industrial added value of Liaoning achieved positive growth for five consecutive months. In 2017, profits of Heilongjiang and Liaoning increased by 135.3% and 93.7% respectively.
Looking into 2018, Miao Wei said that it will continue to focus on improving the quality of the manufacturing supply system, and implement the “Made in China 2025 Intiative” and the network powerhouse constuction strategy, strengthen the strategy of innovation-driven, reform promotion and integration, and promote the reformation of quality, efficiency and motivation, accelerate the cultivation of new momentum for growth, transform and upgrade traditional momentum for growth, and achieve sustainable and healthy development of the industries and telecommunications industry.
