Experts highlight importance of industrial upgrading

China should continue to make upgrade of its industrial structure a top economic priority, focusing on strategic sectors and taking a good balance when adopting a dual-cycle growth pattern, according to experts.

Rui Mingjie, a professor at the School of Management at Fudan University, has published a new book on China’s latest industrial development together with his team, analyzing the country’s industrial performance in 2019 and predicting what will happen next.

“This year has presented many abrupt changes, highlighted by the coronavirus pandemic that brought almost all economic activities to a halt in the first half,  and political tensions that deterred global business cooperation,” Rui said.

A dual-cycle pattern, which means growth dominated by the domestic economic cycle and facilitated by the cycle between China and overseas countries, should be well implemented to stabilize China’s economy and continue the acceleration of its industrial upgrading, Rui said.

“Industrial upgrading is of strategic importance nowadays amid global production and supply chain competition,” said Wang Xiaosha, director of the Shanghai Industrial Development and Analysis Research Center.

As countries compete in platform construction, innovation and professionals, aiming at getting key positions in the global value chain, China should focus on upgrading its strategic sectors such as the digital economy, smart manufacturing, life science and new materials, in a bid to take hold in the following years that may see many uncertainties, experts said.