Industrial foundation needs further strengthening

Editor's note: China is committed to strengthening its industrial foundation in the coming years. Outlook Weekly news magazine spoke to Chen Xuedong, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, about improving this vital sector. Below are excerpts of the interview. The views don't necessarily represent those of China Daily.

While China has made notable progress in strengthening its industrial foundation, several challenges persist. For instance, there is a high dependence on foreign suppliers for core foundational products.

There remains a gap in the quality and reliability of domestically produced foundational products.

Weaknesses in the industrial foundation have restricted enterprises' access to high-end markets, while the technological content and value added of export products remain relatively low, limiting the manufacturing sector's transition toward higher-value activities.

To address these challenges, China should accelerate the upgrading of its industrial foundation, coordinate efforts to advance industrial foundation reengineering and promote major technological equipment development programs.

National science and technology projects should strategically focus on fields such as instrumentation and industrial software. Establishing a competitiveness evaluation system for the country's industrial foundations is crucial, along with forward-looking planning for the foundational products and technologies required by emerging and future industries. In major national plans, breakthroughs in industrial foundation technologies should be recognized as landmark achievements alongside advances in major equipment and systems.

The enhancement of the industrial foundation should be integrated with the development of high-quality and effective technological equipment. There should be differentiated industry clusters for major technological equipment and specialized industry clusters for small and medium-sized enterprises. World-class industry clusters supported by stable supply chains should be developed to better respond to the restructuring of the global industry chains.

Efforts should focus on key industry chains, organizing coordinated research on critical foundational technologies through enterprise-led collaboration among industry, academia and research institutions.

Research on failure modes and failure mechanisms, as well as long-life and high-reliability design and manufacturing, should be strengthened, alongside pilot-scale testing and validation.

Enterprises producing foundational products should be encouraged to accelerate digitalization, networking and intelligent transformation to improve manufacturing processes. Product lifespan and reliability should be enhanced through the establishment of quality grading systems and premium pricing mechanisms for high-quality products.

Standardization systems should be strengthened, testing and certification capabilities improved, and a deeper understanding of the needs of users developed through effective demand-response mechanisms.

The integration of technological innovation and industrial innovation should be further strengthened. Enterprises should be encouraged to increase investment in new growth drivers, emerging technologies and innovative products, generating original and disruptive technological breakthroughs.

Enterprises should also be encouraged to expand international cooperation. Chinese companies should be guided to establish diversified and multilevel partnerships in key segments and optimize the global layout of research, production and services.