Foreign firms turn to high-end manufacturing services

Foreign companies used to invest billions of dollars into China's fast-growing manufacturing sector in the hopes of tapping into the world's most-populous market in the past three decades. Now manufacturing in the country is no longer as central to them as it used to be.

Global companies, instead of concentrating their investment overwhelmingly on manufacturing, including the machinery, steel and automobile businesses, are investing a growing proportion of their cash in China's high-end manufacturing and service sectors, which are already the largest market for many of them.

German engineering and electronics conglomerate Siemens AG opened its first innovation center for intelligent manufacturing in Qingdao, Shandong province, on Friday to enhance innovation in the fields of robotics, modern logistics, big data, information security and smart city.