Hunan pushes ‘Made in China 2025’ with zest

Changsha boosts standards to develop holistic intelligent-manufacturing base

The city of Changsha, capital of Hunan province, is seeking to seize opportunities arising from the “Made in China 2025” vision to transform itself into the country’s leading intelligent-manufacturing center.

It is focusing on developing advanced manufacturing standards and core support software, while aligning integration of industrial and internet products.

Hunan, once considered a less-developed central province with a population of some 70 million, is now spearheading the “Made in China 2025” strategy. It is also striving to establish a holistic intelligent-manufacturing center as a key driver of its economy.

The plan is an integrated scheme which includes both the upgrading of traditional industries with state-of-theart technology and nurturing the development of neweconomy enterprises such as 5G telecoms, internet of things, 3-D printing and robotics.

Changsha currently boasts 68 State-level technology centers or research laboratories as well as 529 provincial- and municipal-level research platforms. The city also hopes its tertiary educational institutions can boost research and development capabilities.

Du Jiahao, Party chief of Hunan province, said: “President Xi Jinping made explicit instructions to shift the country from high-speed to highquality growth.

“As a central province, Hunan has its traditional advantage in manufacturing, but in recent years our engineering machinery, electronic information, biopharmaceutical, new-energy and new materials have also seen notable growth,” explained Du.

“I think the moment is ripe for Hunan province to make the shift now,” he added.

Launched by Premier Li Keqiang in 2015, “Made in China 2025” is a national strategy. It aims to encourage the country’s industrial modernization while stressing independent innovation.

In the first quarter of this year the value-added contribution from new technology industries in the province rose 15.8 percent and now accounts for 19.1 percent of the province’s gross domestic product.

Du Jiahao,

Today, Changsha boasts more than 3,000 enterprises “above a designated size”. This is a term used by the government to refer to all Stateowned and non-State-owned companies with annual sales revenue exceeding 5 million yuan ($782,000).

In recent years, a number of impressive products were created in Changsha. These include a supercomputer which holds a world record for speed and performance; super hybrid rice which has raised crop yields to a new level; and high quality 3-D laser printers. These have given Changsha a fine reputation for independent innovation.

Good infrastructure is also in place to safeguard the growth of innovation following the city obtaining authorization from the State Intellectual Property Office. The China (Changsha) Intellectual Property Protection Center was established last year to provide comprehensive and effective protection for the intelligent-manufacturing equipment industry. This will also greatly reduce the time needed to authorize and safeguard the rights of invention patents.

Hunan province joined the “3 trillion” club after its GDP further grew to nearly 3.46 trillion yuan last year — the ninth-largest across the country, according to the International Monetary Fund.