Speakers:
Miao Wei, minister of industry and information technology
Huang Libin, director of the Operation Monitoring and Coordination Bureau of the MIIT and the ministry's spokesperson
Wen Ku, head of the Department of Information and Communications Development of the MIIT and the ministry's spokesperson.
Chairperson:
Hu Kaihong, spokesperson of the State Council Information Office
Date:
Sept. 20, 2019
Hu Kaihong:
Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. Welcome to this conference. This year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Over the past seven decades, China's industry and communications sectors have seen tremendous changes. Today, we are delighted to invite Mr. Miao Wei, minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), to introduce the changes and answer some of your questions. Also present at the conference are: Mr. Huang Libin, director of the Operation Monitoring and Coordination Bureau of the MIIT and the ministry's spokesperson, as well as Mr. Wen Ku, head of the Department of Information and Communications Development of the MIIT and the ministry's spokesperson.
Now, I'll give the floor to Mr. Miao Wei.
Miao Wei:
Friends from the media, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. Welcome to this press conference. Thank you for your attention to and support for China's development of its industry and information technologies. Now, I'd like to briefly introduce the achievements we have made in these areas in the past 70 years.
Industry lays the foundation for a country's development and prosperity. The application of information technologies serves as the engine for greater advancement and progress of the era.
During General Secretary Xi Jinping's recent inspection tour in central China, he stressed that China must develop its real economy. He also stressed that manufacturing is the foundation of a real economy, so manufacturing must be developed, so as to promote the development of the real economy. He emphasized that only in this way, can China achieve the two centenary goals.
As the 70th anniversary of PRC is approaching, his instructions have greatly encouraged those who are working in various industries and information technology field. In the past 70 years, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Chinese people have overcome various difficulties and explored new ways of development, successfully embarking on a new path of industrialization with Chinese characteristics. It took us only decades to complete a process that took developed countries several centuries. This is truly a miracle in human history.
A prominent feature of our success is that China has established an independent modern industrial system with complete categories of industries, and the size of the Chinese industrial sector is the largest in the world. When the PRC was just founded, we were only able to produce simple daily necessities like cups and kettles. Today, China has become the only country in the world that has all industries based on the classification by the United Nations. The value-added of China's industry has grown from 12 billion yuan in 1952 to more than 30 trillion yuan in 2018, registering an increase of 971 times on constant prices, growing 11% annually. According to the World Bank, the value-added of China's manufacturing industry surpassed the United States in 2010, making China the world's largest manufacturer one and a half centuries after it lost the title in the mid-19th century. Take steel production as an example. In 1949, China's total steel output was only 158,000 tons, accounting for 0.1% of the world's total. In 1958, when the country was launching the Great Leap Forward campaign (1958-1961), we struggled hard to produce 10.7 million tons of steel. By 2018, the country's total steel output surpassed 900 million tons, increasing 5,799 times from 1949, and has for years, contributed to half of the world's total steel production.
In the meantime, China has seen a substantial enhancement in its innovation capacities regarding industrial and communication sectors. In particular, after the 18th CPC national congress held in 2012, and with the progress of the innovation-driven development strategy, China has achieved the strategic goal of "gaining a foothold" in major sectors and development directions.
A batch of products, such as the self-developed high-speed Fuxing bullet trains and the third-generation nuclear reactor technology, The Hualong One, are all world-leading technologies. A group of Chinese manufacturing enterprises, including Huawei and the CRRC, have also gained greater recognition in the world. Take the mobile telecommunications industry for example, China has made historical achievements in the past decades. We followed the trend in the 2G era, made a breakthrough into the 3G era, achieved synchronized development with other countries in the 4G era, and lead the world in the 5G era. China now boasts the largest number of 5G-standard-essential patents in the world.
By the end of 2018 and largely driven by the development of information and communications technologies, China's digital economy reached a total worth of 31 trillion yuan, accounting for one third of the country's total GDP.
