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October 21, 2016

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Home » City specials » Ningbo

Meeting the challenges for ‘Made in China 2025’

WHY was Ningbo selected as the first pilot city to implement “Made in China 2025?” One of the reasons is that the coastal city in southeast China’s Zhejiang Province is upgrading its port to meet the modern demands.

Ningbo is doing its bit to realize the strategy, drawing on powers from industries, policies and cultures to meet the challenge.

It is tantalizing: modern factories equipped with advanced equipment and thousands of sensors connected to the Internet, machines correcting supply hiccups on their own and running without downtime. Central to that is integrating Internet and digital technologies with industrial experience.

There is no fixed solution for it, but it demands more collaborations among industries, companies and governments than before.

Recently, Ningbo International Investment Promotion Bureau held a dialogue between local private enterprises and Fortune 500 companies like Siemens, Phoenix and Intel on mirroring the paths of “Industry 4.0” and “Industrial Internet.” They were also asked to throw light on smart manufacturing.

Meanwhile, the conglomerates were also eyeing companies in Ningbo to partner in their strategies.

Ningbo has a five-year plan to implement the “Made in China 2025.” By the end of 2020, the city is expected to generate more than 100 billion yuan (US$14.84 billion) annually as the output value on smart manufacturing equipment, backed up with the annual production capacity of 80,000 suits of smart equipment such as robots and high-end numerically-controlled machine tools.

The city aims to inject smart manufacturing into more than 90 percent of its companies, benefiting those factories with automated production lines and flexible robot arms.

“The city has the industrial basis to realize that,” an official surnamed Liu at ITT, a US-based industrial group, said at the seminar.

Last year, Ningbo raised nearly 300 billion yuan from oil, while its automobile output value totaled 145.3 billion yuan with an annual production capacity of 1.1 million vehicles.

Apart from the heavy industries, its light industries have dominated the Chinese market for long. One quarter of the nation’s shirt market is taken up by Ningbo producers, while it also produces one third of China’s household appliances.

Entrepreneurs from Ningbo are called “Yongjiajun,” (the troop of Yong, as Yong is the local term for Ningbo). The business mentality is long embedded in every citizen here, given that these appliances entrepreneurs most likely started with no technical background, but are open to learning from each other for mutual profit, expanding the industry based on local collaborations.

New technologies

Private economy thus is the backbone of Ningbo’s development. Wang Jianhou, the city’s vice major, said the private sector contributed to more than 80 percent of the city’s gross output value, 66 percent of the export, 76 percent of its taxes, and providing 87 percent of the city’s job opportunities.

Such a development model is attracting multinational enterprises.

Gu Jiandang, a member of the executive committee of Phoenix, a Germany-based industrial giant, expressed willingness to collaborate with Ningbo’s companies.

Gu said Ningbo’s economic structure resembles that of Germany, where small and medium-sized enterprises are at the core of economy, pumping new technologies into larger enterprises while the latter, along with the government, streamline the business chains.

The government is making efforts to build bridges among industries and companies. To attract individuals and organizations to boost smart manufacturing operations in Ningbo, the city is welcoming domestic and foreign universities and companies. The city plans to hold 20-to-30 percent stake in them and invest 2 million yuan in universities and 4 million yuan in state-owned companies and in Fortune 500.

It is also eyeing talents for emerging industries such as data collection centers, new energy vehicles, new materials, biopharmaceuticals and advanced chemistry.

According to Song Dajun, deputy director of the Ningbo Economic and Information Technology Commission, individuals who bring advanced technologies with them will be subsidized 1 million yuan, and outstanding startups will be given 5-20 million yuan.

While domestic investment has pumped enthusiasm into industries, the government has also accelerated building platforms to integrate foreign cooperation recently. Highlighting automobile, energy, health care, telecommunications, retailing, chemistry, satellite manufacturing and logistics, the Investment Promotion Agency of the Ministry of Commerce has set up 11 committees to find foreign partners for local manufacturers.

Last year, Ningbo attracted foreign capital worth US$2.22 billion in the manufacturing industry. It has become the fourth sub-provincial city in China to take in more than US$10 billion in terms of foreign investments.

Machine equipment is the key area that Ningbo plans to fulfill for its “Made in China 2025” task. It is a key hurdle that China needs to conquer to upgrade its industries.

Chen Chen, deputy director of the China Machinery Industry Information Research Institute, said China will succeed in its transformation into smart manufacturing country only if the core areas are strengthened, backed up with advanced home-developed technologies.

“Only with strong mechanical arms can the Internet brain operate more efficiently,” Chen said.

Ningbo, fortunately, is one of the cities holding the strongest equipment manufacturing industry in China.

It is the largest industry in Ningbo, accounting for over 40 percent of the city’s industrial output. Last year, Ningbo reaped 579.6 billion yuan in equipment manufacturing led by molding machines, transport vehicles and numerically-controlled machine tools.

To fulfill the pilot project, the Ningbo government is recruiting professionals. Projects costing higher than 50 million yuan will be subsidized. Enterprises which integrate equipment and streamline productions will be supported with benefits rounded up to 8 million yuan.




 

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