With the rise of cloud computing, Internet of things, big data, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, blockchain and other new technologies, more and more countries regard the development of digital manufacturing industry as an important way to promote the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, vigorously promote the deep integration of new generation information technology and manufacturing industry, and vigorously develop advanced manufacturing and intelligent manufacturing.
At present, under the background of accelerating the formation of a new development pattern with domestic big cycle as the main body and domestic and international double cycle mutual promotion, the traditional manufacturing industry needs to comprehensively and dialectically look at the difficulties and challenges encountered in the development, fully understand the new development opportunities, focus on key issues, and take pragmatic measures to promote the Internet, big data, artificial intelligence and real economy Deep integration will promote China’s manufacturing industry to move towards the middle and high end of the global value chain.
Further clarify the important position of traditional manufacturing industry
China has entered a stage of high-quality development, which has many advantages and favorable conditions. At the same time, the problem of unbalanced and insufficient development is still prominent. At present, China is still in the process of industrialization, facing the “window of opportunity” to transform and upgrade the existing industries. We need to seize this important opportunity to further promote the process of industrialization.
Among them, the traditional manufacturing industry is an important part of China’s industrial system, and its healthy development has a profound impact on China’s industrialization process.
First, the development of industrialization still needs the contribution of traditional manufacturing industry. In recent years, the proportion of China’s secondary industry in GDP has decreased from 42.5% in 2015 to 36.1% in 2018; the proportion of employment has decreased from 29.3% in 2015 to 27.6% in 2018, and the feature of “speed down and quality improvement” of industrial development is obvious. In this context, the quality and efficiency of the development of traditional manufacturing industry is very important. From the total level, metal smelting and rolling processing industry, general equipment manufacturing industry and non-metallic mineral products industry, as the representative sectors of traditional manufacturing industry, account for 3.91%, 6.31% and 9.27% of the total number of Enterprises above industrial scale respectively, which are important parts of China’s production system. From the perspective of efficiency, the traditional manufacturing industry still plays a positive role in improving the efficiency of the entire industrial sector.
Second, the traditional manufacturing industry has a special “stabilizer” role in coping with the impact. This year, the novel coronavirus pneumonia has a great impact on China’s economy. In the second quarter, China’s economic growth has been negative, and the average growth rate of industrial added value is 4.36%, higher than that of GDP. Compared with the service industry and other manufacturing sectors, the traditional manufacturing industry has the characteristics of long buffer period and strong anti fluctuation ability, which makes the traditional manufacturing industry play an important role in the process of stabilizing industrial growth. From this point of view, a strong traditional manufacturing industry can improve the economic resilience of the economy against rare shocks, which is of great significance to the stability of the national economy.
Third, traditional manufacturing industry can play an important role in accelerating the construction of new infrastructure. This year’s “government work report” proposes “strengthening the construction of new infrastructure”. The acceleration of the construction of new infrastructure also puts forward higher requirements for the traditional manufacturing industry. For example, the construction of 5g base station, UHV and new traffic rail still needs high-quality traditional manufacturing products such as special steel, special cement and other metal products. At present, the new infrastructure market which highlights the needs of high-end products and special products has initially formed, and the traditional manufacturing industry will enter a new stage of market development. In this context, the domestic market of traditional manufacturing still has a lot of room to expand, which provides new opportunities for the transformation and upgrading of traditional manufacturing.
The new development pattern puts forward higher requirements for the development of traditional manufacturing industry
Under the background of accelerating the formation of a new development pattern with domestic big circulation as the main body and domestic and international double circulation promoting each other, to improve the development quality of manufacturing industry, we must accelerate the digital transformation of manufacturing industry. Under the premise of transformation and development, traditional manufacturing industry is facing new challenges from both domestic and international aspects.
On the one hand, the transformation and upgrading of traditional manufacturing industry is difficult to adapt to and accurately match the current situation of domestic multi-level demand. China’s regional development is unbalanced, and the market development level of different regions is also different, which makes it difficult for the traditional manufacturing industry to transfer smoothly between regions. According to the contemporary international industrialization standards, the eastern coastal developed areas of China have entered the late stage of industrialization, and the traditional manufacturing industry is facing the pressure of inland transfer. Although the central and western regions are in the stage of rapid development of industrialization, it is difficult for the central and western regions to fully undertake the transfer of traditional manufacturing industries in the East due to the constraints of market development level, ecological environment and regional policy conditions. At the same time, the eastern region speeds up the construction of new infrastructure, has higher requirements for the technical content of manufacturing industry, and the driving force of the transformation and upgrading of traditional manufacturing industry will be greater; while the central and western regions are in the stage of accelerated urbanization, the traditional construction industry still has a certain vitality, and the real economic incentive of the transformation and upgrading of traditional manufacturing industry is not strong.
On the other hand, our traditional manufacturing industry needs to find new ways to expand the international market. Under the impact of the global epidemic, the world economy is in recession, and the circulation of industrial chain supply chain is blocked. The export of China’s traditional manufacturing products is also facing challenges. On the supply side, the “low-cost” advantage of China’s manufacturing industry is gradually weakening, and new comparative advantages such as labor productivity and supply chain efficiency are still in the process of gestation. It is an important problem to be solved that how the traditional manufacturing industry moves towards the upstream of the industrial chain with higher added value in the international cycle. In terms of demand, in the past, the main export markets of China’s traditional manufacturing products were Europe and North America. However, affected by the complex and changeable world economic situation, the demand for China’s bulk commodities in these markets is likely to shrink. How to find an alternative market is another important challenge for China’s traditional manufacturing industry.
The realistic path to promote the transformation and upgrading of traditional manufacturing industry
Facing the new situation and new challenges, the traditional manufacturing industry needs to actively explore the transformation and upgrading path to enhance the ability to meet domestic demand as the main line, and enhance the status of international circulation.
First, we should enhance the ability of traditional manufacturing industry to meet domestic demand. At present, the coordinated development of Beijing Tianjin Hebei, the development of the Yangtze River economic belt, innovation driven development, Rural Revitalization and other strategies continue to advance, which provides new opportunities for traditional manufacturing industry to better participate in the domestic cycle. Traditional manufacturing industry should actively meet the needs of national strategy, make efforts in technology research and development, product design and marketing, and realize transformation and upgrading in the organic connection with national strategy. At the same time, in the process of participating in the domestic cycle, explore the direction and path of transformation and upgrading of traditional manufacturing industry.
Second, we should attach equal importance to the research and development of core technologies and the development of new international markets, and cultivate new advantages for manufacturing industry to participate in international cooperation and competition. The traditional manufacturing industry has obvious comparative advantages in basic technology, production capacity, market share and so on. It needs to make up for the shortcomings in core technology, give full play to its advantages and seek development. In particular, we should accelerate the cultivation of new competitive advantages in terms of labor productivity and supply chain efficiency in view of the gradual weakening of “low-cost” advantages of manufacturing industry. For this reason, traditional manufacturing industry needs to make great efforts to transform to new materials, new energy and new technology with common technology foundation while deepening existing fields, and actively invest in technology research and development related to main business. Meanwhile, one belt, one road, and other countries along the city should be seized to promote the opportunity of infrastructure construction and urbanization, and strive to open up new overseas markets.
Manufacturing industry is the most concentrated field of all kinds of resource elements. Therefore, the development of manufacturing industry is a complex system engineering, which not only has a complete range of categories and many industries, but also has mutual connection and restriction. With the in-depth application of digital technology, accelerating the digital transformation of traditional industries has become an important part of deepening the supply side structural reform, promoting the high-quality development of manufacturing industry and better developing the digital economy.