China News Service, Shanghai, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- To accelerate the digital transformation of the manufacturing industry, what can China learn from the world?
Interview with Liu Junmei, Vice Dean of the School of Economics, Fudan University.
China News Service reporter Chen Jing Wen Longjie.
As a new economic format, the digital economy has been widely recognized and has appeared in the national top-level strategic design of many countries. From 5G, artificial intelligence to industrial software and intelligent manufacturing, from digital factories and black light factories to future factories and smart factories, countries have carried out top-level design and strategic layout for the digitalization of the manufacturing industry, seeking to occupy the commanding heights in the new pattern of the world economy.
China's economy has shifted from a stage of rapid growth to a stage of high-quality development, and the digital transformation of the manufacturing industry is of great significance. What are the similarities and differences between the digital transformation of Chinese and foreign manufacturing industries, and what are the advantages of each? China News Service's "East-West Question" recently interviewed Liu Junmei, deputy dean of the School of Economics of Fudan University.
The transcript of the interview is summarized below
China News Service: In Industry 40. In the era of intelligent manufacturing, how are China's "long boards" and "short boards" compared with industrial powers in the traditional sense?
Liu Junmei: In the past 30 years of development, China has rapidly narrowed the gap with traditional industrial powers, and the manufacturing industry and its digital transformation have formed unique characteristics and advantages, with many "long boards". China's manufacturing industry is larger and has the most complete system, so it is more dynamic; China's 5G technology is at the world's leading level, with 5G base stations accounting for about 70% of the world's total, and 5G networks have covered all parts of the country. China is leading in the application of new technologies, new formats and new models, and China has invested more in this area than other countries, which has given a great impetus to the digital transformation of the manufacturing industry. In addition, the potential market for digital transformation in the manufacturing industry is large: at present, the proportion of digital investment in China's enterprises above designated size is 05%-1%, while the proportion of European and American companies is 3%-5%, if the digital investment of Chinese enterprises continues to increase to the level of European and American enterprises, combined with the output value of the manufacturing industry, China's potential market will be very huge.
On April 26, 2023, staff install 5G equipment in Xianju County, Taizhou City, Zhejiang Province. Photo by Chen Yueming.
Of course, there are still many "shortcomings" in the digital transformation of China's manufacturing industry, including: the overall technical level of the industry is relatively backward, and the dependence of industries such as core basic components, key basic materials and basic technologies still needs to be reduced; China's Internet penetration rate has reached 764%, but the Internet penetration rate in the United States, Germany, and Japan is around 90%; In terms of new digital infrastructure, in addition to 5G-related technologies, China's technology level needs to be improved in many other areas. At present, most of the world's hyperscale data centers are located in the United States, and domestic software is not competitive. The penetration rate of industrial digitalization is not high; In terms of supporting services for digital transformation, China needs a variety of digital solution providers** to provide corresponding services.
China News Service: In the face of the fourth industrial revolution, what is the overall trend of traditional industrial powers in terms of the digital transformation strategy of the manufacturing industry? What are the characteristics of each?
Liu Junmei: In the face of the fourth industrial revolution, traditional industrial powers have put forward different ideas and plans for the digitalization of the manufacturing industry based on their own development advantages.
The main task of the U.S. strategy is to revitalize the manufacturing industry, attract the manufacturing industry back to the United States, and increase its share of global advanced manufacturing products, and its "reindustrialization" uses digital technology and information technology to develop advanced manufacturing, focusing on advanced manufacturing fields such as robotics and biotechnology, while focusing on improving technological innovation capabilities and achievement transformation capabilities; The German strategy is intended to strengthen the leading position of "Made in Germany", and it is expected to compete in the development of new standards and promote "German standards"; Japan's strategy is to build a new digital society, focus on the development of new technologies such as robots, realize "industrial interconnection" and "connected manufacturing", and promote technological innovation in the intelligent manufacturing industry; Singapore has increased its investment in new industries and technologies of "artificial intelligence" to build a world research center; South Korea, on the other hand, is focusing on the construction of "smart factories".
Intelligent robots mingle with attendees at the 2024 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Photo by Zhang Shuo.
The differences between China and developed countries in terms of digital transformation of manufacturing industry are reflected in different development paths, different focuses, and different attention to small and medium-sized enterprises. China's development path is that digitalization precedes automation; The focus is on the development of emerging industries at the same time, with the integration of industrialization and industrialization as the main line, to promote the traditional industries in automation and informatization "make-up".
China News Service: In the context of global competition, what challenges have different Chinese enterprises encountered in their digital transformation?
Liu Junmei: In the process of digital transformation, different enterprises in China face different challenges: large enterprises are more inclined to make standardized products, while personalized products are more suitable for small enterprises and small teams to implement. The main force of China's manufacturing industry is a large number of small and medium-sized waist enterprises. Small and medium-sized enterprises in the traditional manufacturing industry have long adopted traditional management models and production methods, and they have many troubles in the understanding of transformation parties and transformation cases, that is, what to do and how to do it. Therefore, when small and medium-sized enterprises carry out digital transformation, they often have the problem of "not wanting to transfer" and "not going to transfer". Many small and medium-sized enterprises have not yet completed the automation transformation, and the constraints on capital make the ability of enterprises to trial and error insufficient, resulting in "dare not transfer". Even if an external team is hired to help enterprises carry out digital transformation, there is a lack of relevant internal talent understanding and implementation plans, which can easily lead to unsatisfactory transformation results or even failure.
China News Service: In terms of industrial software, how competitive is China? In the digital era, how can we learn from the practices and experiences of Western developed countries?
Liu Junmei: Industrial software is the brain and nerve of the manufacturing industry. China's scientific industrial software is the largest gap from the international level, followed by engineering, and the smallest gap is management software. However, the level of China's domestic industrial software is not lagging behind the international in an all-round way, but showing differentiation, and even leading the international in management software.
In terms of core engines and scientific software, China is still lagging behind in an all-round way. At present, most of the software in China is based on American data and open source, which means that we have not yet established a complete software system. In order to solve these problems, China has stepped up its efforts in software technology research and development and innovation, and has achieved phased results. For example, in the field of industrial software such as CAD, ERP, FP, SCM, PLC, etc., the localization rate has been relatively high, and domestic ERP software occupies nearly 90% of the market share; At the same time, a large number of system solution providers have emerged, including more than 40 system solution providers with main business income of more than 1 billion yuan (RMB).
In particular, it should be noted that China's domestic industrial software lacks sufficient application scenarios. In the face of the technological advantages and market monopoly of developed countries such as Europe and the United States in the field of software, we need to release some suitable application scenarios to domestic intelligent equipment, so that domestic software has the opportunity to be verified by trial and error.
In the wave of digital transformation, the first thing to be solved in the digital transformation of China's manufacturing industry is the problem of "weak foundation". In this regard, we can learn from the experience of German platform construction, strengthen cooperation with Germany in this regard, and promote the maturity and improvement of related platform systems such as the integration platform of industrialization and industrialization, the industrial Internet network innovation laboratory, and the integrated testbed of industrial Internet manufacturing security. The digital transformation under the thinking of the industrial Internet in the United States can match the actual situation in China.
In July 2023, the research team on digital transformation of manufacturing industry at Fudan University conducted a survey of more than 30 digital transformation service providers and demand-side enterprises. Photo courtesy of the interviewee.
China News Service: In terms of industrial policy support, especially for the digital transformation of small and medium-sized enterprises, what support measures have countries taken? What kind of industrial policy support do China's small and medium-sized enterprises need?
Liu Junmei: Generally speaking, with the support of the United States, Germany, Japan, and Singapore, they have all built or formed relatively mature support systems or platforms; China, Germany, Singapore and South Korea** pay more attention to the digital transformation of small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises.
In terms of industrial support, the United States has created a national manufacturing innovation network as an "incubator" to reduce the cost and risk of R&D and application in the form of "industry-university-research-government" cooperation, promote the research and development of advanced technologies, and promote the transformation and application of research results; Germany has built Industry 40 platform as well as SME Industry 40 Centers of Excellence, led by experts from academia and industry, to help all industrial enterprises in their digital transformation; Japan has formed a mature multi-party cooperation support system, that is, the integrated cooperation mechanism of "government, industry and academia", which has played a significant role in the transformation of technological achievements; Singapore has also launched the "National Artificial Intelligence Core" plan and the "University-Enterprise Research Office" plan to unite the tripartite forces of domestic and foreign enterprises, universities and other scientific research institutions. At present, China has also built a platform for the integration of industrialization and industrialization, but it still needs to be improved in terms of the number of participating enterprises and the construction of platform functions.
In China, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are an important part of the market economy, and their digital transformation is an important part of stimulating the vitality of China's economy. However, due to the limitations of technology, capital, talent and management experience, etc., which hinder the digital transformation of small and medium-sized enterprises, all levels are promoting multi-party cooperation among financial institutions, platforms and enterprises, and using practical policy measures such as "cloud loans" to try to solve the problems of small and medium-sized enterprises, which are facing the problems of "will not transfer", "cannot transfer" and "dare not transfer" in the face of digital transformation.
On September 21, 2023, workers rushed to make orders at the "Digital Textile Workshop" in the Green Textile Industrial Park in Lianjiang County, Fuzhou City, Fujian Province. Photo by Wang Wangwang.
We can learn from Germany's experience. Germany has a developed industry, a high level of digitalization of large enterprises, and some enterprises are at the top level in the world, so Germany's policy support pays more attention to small and medium-sized enterprises, and a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises are built in industry40 Centers of Excellence and SME testbeds provide SMEs with opportunities to recognize and understand digitalization and provide specific digital transformation implementation plans. (ENDS).
Interviewee Profile:
Liu Junmei is Vice Dean of the School of Economics, Fudan University, Deputy Secretary-General of the China Society of World Economics, and Associate Professor of the Institute of World Economy, School of Economics, Fudan University. His research interests include world economic theory, emerging market economy, digital economy, Russian economy, etc. The main social and academic part-time positions include: Deputy Secretary-General of the China World Economic Association, Vice President of the Shanghai Society of Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Chairman of the Liberal Arts Subcommittee of the European and American Scholars Association of Fudan University, Member of the 14th and 15th Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference of Shanghai Yangpu District, and Member of the Shanghai Yangpu District Committee of the Jiusan Society; He is also an anonymous reviewer for journals such as Russian Studies and Eurasian Economics.