German firm eyes Made in China 2025

These ultimately enable faster delivery, lower costs, reduced inventory, shortened warehousing periods and mass customization, all of which will greatly boost efficiency at plants across China and revolutionize the country’s sprawling manufacturing sector. That’s exactly what the Made in China 2025 strategy targets.

“Though the strategy is still at an early stage, it is undoubtedly progressing rapidly,” Gibbs said.

Since its implementation in 2015, the Made in China 2025 strategy has established 109 smart manufacturing pilot projects. As of mid-2017, average productivity had grown by 38 percent while operating costs had dropped by 21 percent, Gibbs said, citing data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

“More recently, in October, President Xi Jinping put renewed emphasis on quality growth and innovation as the country enters a ‘new era’ of development. His vision is for continued growth in manufacturing quality and efficiency to help elevate China’s position in global trade,” Gibbs said, adding that such a farsighted goal will generate huge opportunities for the German company.

“We can see evidence of this at our Smart Manufacturing Innovation Center in Ningbo, one of the world’s busiest ports,” he said. “We work closely with government and business leaders to identify how SAP’s technology, combined with our global experience, can help accelerate China’s transformation to smarter, higher quality, more innovative manufacturing.”

Such enthusiasm to get increasingly involved in the Made in China 2025 strategy is shared by many foreign senior executives. According to a survey by market research company PwC, a striking 91 percent of 195 China-based expat CEOs identified the strategy as a driver of opportunities for their companies. Most of the executives surveyed by PwC are at the helm of their respective multinational corporations’ China branches.

Guan Dongyuan, president of Brazilian aerospace conglomerate Embraer’s China branch, also thinks highly of the opportunities brought by the strategy.

“As a leading commercial and executive jet manufacturer, Embraer sees big potential from the China market,” Guan said.

He added that Made in China 2025 has further accelerated the development of high-end industries in China, especially the aviation industry. Contact the writers at masi@chinadaily.com.cn Chinese Academy of Engineering academician, CPPCC National Committee member China Construction Third Engineering Bureau Co president, NPC deputy

China should strengthen basic research in traditional Chinese medicine and establish national key laboratories for TCM to support its development and innovation. Tu Youyou’s winning of the Nobel Prize proves the innate advantages of TCM, and to fully...

As product and food delivery packaging materials are being used in large quantities and have caused enormous environmental impact nationwide, the country must accelerate its pace of setting standards and regulations including measures to tackle...