Why the first national regular meeting focuses on manufacturing in the new year

Manufacturing industry is the main body of real economy. At present, the added value of China's manufacturing industry accounts for about 30% of the global manufacturing industry, ranking first in the world. But we should also see that the development of China's manufacturing industry is facing many new difficulties and challenges. From the perspective of external environment, the international environment is complex and severe, trade protectionism is on the rise, and Global trade growth lacks momentum. From the perspective of internal environment, the stage of imitative wave discharge consumption has basically ended, personalized and diversified consumption has gradually become the mainstream, the importance of ensuring product quality and safety, and activating demand through innovative supply has increased significantly, all of which put forward higher requirements for manufacturing enterprises. The first executive meeting of the State Council in 2020 will be presided over by Premier Li Keqiang on January 3.

The meeting studied several important issues, one of which was to determine measures to promote stable growth of manufacturing industry. Just days before the meeting, the National Bureau of statistics released the China Manufacturing Purchasing Manager Index (PMI). In December 2019, the manufacturing PMI was 50.2%, only 0.2 percentage points higher than the boom and bust line. In 2019, the highest value of manufacturing PMI is only 50.5%, with 8 months of manufacturing PMI below the boom and bust line. Manufacturing industry is the main body of real economy, the foundation of building a country, the tool of rejuvenating a country, and the foundation of a strong country. At the beginning of the new year, the executive meeting of the State Council focused on the issue of manufacturing industry, which fully shows that the Party Central Committee and the State Council attach great importance to the development of manufacturing industry. Over the past 40 years of reform and opening up, China's manufacturing industry has entered a period of rapid development. According to the results of the fourth national economic census, at the end of 2018, there were 3.27 million manufacturing enterprise legal entities in China, an increase of 45.2% over the end of 2013, accounting for 94.8% of the total industry, 1.3 percentage points higher than the end of 2013; the total assets of manufacturing enterprises exceeded one billion, an increase of 32.1% over the end of 2013, with an average annual growth of 5.7%.

At present, the added value of China's manufacturing industry accounts for about 30% of the global manufacturing industry, ranking first in the world. However, we should also see that as China's economic development enters the new normal, the driving force of growth changes from investment and export to consumption, and the industrial structure changes from low-end labor-intensive industries and resource-based industries to technology, knowledge intensive and innovative industries. We can no longer rely more on resources, capital, labor and other factors to support rapid economic growth and scale expansion. In this situation, China's manufacturing industry is facing many new difficulties and challenges. From the perspective of external environment, the international environment is complex and severe, trade protectionism is on the rise, and Global trade growth lacks momentum. As the cost of labor and other factors increases, the cost advantage of made in China decreases. From the perspective of internal environment, the stage of imitative wave discharge consumption has basically ended, personalized and diversified consumption has gradually become the mainstream, the importance of ensuring product quality and safety, and activating demand through innovative supply has increased significantly, all of which put forward higher requirements for manufacturing enterprises. However, many manufacturing enterprises in our country generally have the problem of weak independent innovation ability. There are more practical technological innovation in manufacturing industry, less original and subversive technological innovation.

In particular, the awareness and investment of different enterprises in innovation are quite different. The lack of innovation kinetic energy of private enterprises, especially small and micro enterprises, is the main challenge to restrict the improvement of innovation ability. According to the sample survey of Wuhan University Development Strategy Research Institute, the proportion of private enterprises to set up R & D departments is 46.3%, 2.9 percentage points lower than the overall level. The innovation ability of small enterprises is insufficient, and the proportion of small enterprises with patents is 17.7%, which is 23.9% lower than that of medium-sized enterprises and 39.7% lower than that of large enterprises. In addition, many manufacturing enterprises in the dual pressure of resources and environment, profit margins continue to narrow. In the first 11 months of 2019, the cumulative year-on-year growth rate of profits of Industrial Enterprises above Designated Size continued to be negative, and the operation difficulties of industrial enterprises were still relatively large. For a long time, the problem of capital's disenchantment from the real to the virtual has existed in varying degrees. The difficulty of financing has not been fundamentally solved, which has increased many difficulties for the development of many small and medium-sized enterprises, especially small and micro enterprises. To develop the real economy, the focus is on the manufacturing industry, and the difficulties are also in the manufacturing industry.

At present, China's manufacturing industry is at the intersection of new history and future. It is not only faced with the task of realizing development quality change, efficiency change and power change, but also faced with the urgent requirement of continuously enhancing the adaptability of supply structure to demand upgrading. The central economic working conference held in December 2019 pointed out that it is necessary to promote the development of real economy, improve the level of manufacturing industry, develop emerging industries, and promote mass entrepreneurship and innovation. According to the plan of the executive meeting of the State Council, the state will use reform and marketization measures to fully stimulate the vitality of market players, enhance development momentum and promote stable growth of manufacturing industry. Specifically speaking, we should make efforts in four aspects: first, we should promote reform and innovation; second, we should vigorously develop advanced manufacturing industry, introduce new infrastructure investment support policies such as information network, and promote intelligent and green manufacturing; third, we should expand the opening up of manufacturing industry; fourth, we should tap the potential of domestic demand. These work plans cover system innovation, technology innovation, market potential tapping and other fields. They are just the short boards that need to be overcome in the current development of manufacturing industry. They are also the focus of implementing the central decision-making and deployment in 2020 to promote the stable growth of manufacturing industry.

From the perspective of deepening reform, we must further remove the institutional and institutional barriers restricting the development of manufacturing industry, continue to deepen the reform of simplifying administration and delegating power, combining deregulation with management, and optimizing service, minimize the direct allocation of market resources by the government, minimize the direct intervention of the government in market activities, strengthen and standardize the supervision after the event, and strive to improve the service ability and level of government affairs We will effectively reduce institutional transaction costs, stimulate market vitality and social creativity, and enhance development momentum. We need to deepen the structural reform of the financial supply side, dredge the transmission mechanism of monetary policy, increase the medium and long-term financing of the manufacturing industry, promote the alleviation of the financing difficulties of private and small and micro enterprises, guide the funds to more support enterprises to increase investment in technology research and development, improve the supply quality of medium and high-end products, and drive the further expansion of effective demand with higher quality supply. From the perspective of innovation, we must always adhere to innovation as the soul, strive to overcome the technical bottleneck of "neck sticking", and achieve all-round leading from heel to runner. In particular, it is necessary to strengthen applied basic research, expand the implementation of major national science and technology projects, highlight key generic technologies, leading technologies, modern engineering technologies, and disruptive technological innovation, accelerate the integration of industrialization and information technology, vigorously develop intelligent manufacturing, and constantly cultivate new competitive advantages of manufacturing industry.

More importantly, to accelerate the transformation and application of scientific and technological achievements, we should not let scientific and technological innovation achievements stay on paper and lie quietly in the laboratory, but really apply them to production practice, and really let new technologies play a key role in leading the high-quality development of various industries and fields. We should adhere to the principle of people-oriented, strengthen talent training, guide more excellent talents to gather in manufacturing industry, and strengthen the talent support for high-quality development of manufacturing industry. From the perspective of market, enterprises should be encouraged and guided to invest funds in advanced manufacturing fields, accelerate the informatization and equipment upgrading of manufacturing industry, aim to increase varieties and optimize product supply, tap demand blind spots, develop personalized, fashionable and functional products, and enrich product types and grades, which can not only promote the transformation and upgrading of the whole manufacturing industry, but also enhance manufacturing enterprises Our market competitiveness can also better provide consumers with high-quality products, better meet consumers' multi-level, customized needs, make consumers more confident, more daring to consume, more willing to spend money, promote the "double upgrading" of industry and consumption, and play the basic role of consumption and the key role of investment. In addition, we must adhere to the principle of quality first and efficiency first, so that made in China will become the "quality responsibility" in the international market competition; accelerate the cultivation of a number of distinctive, valuable and well-known "Chinese brands" and "golden signboards"; build a number of advanced manufacturing clusters with international competitiveness, improve the basic industrial capacity and the modernization level of the industrial chain; and take a more active attitude Integrate into the global trading system, actively practice openness and cooperation, actively participate in global resource allocation, and actively integrate into global value chain, industrial chain and supply chain.