On January 11, the “Industrial Innovation and Transformation Shanghai Roundtable——Industrial Restructuring and Upgrading Meeting on Shanghai’s Manufacturing Industry in the 13th Five-Year Plan Period” was held in Shanghai Academy. The meeting was co-sponsored by the Institute of Applied Economics of Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences (SASS) and Shanghai Academy.
Based on the development background of the in-depth integration between industrialization and information-based construction, and with the innovation and restructuring of Shanghai’s manufacturing industry in the 13th Five-Year Plan period as the theme, the meeting focused on the development orientation of the manufacturing sector in Shanghai’s service-oriented economic system; how to promote innovation and restructuring of Shanghai’s manufacturing industry with supply-side structural reform; and how to lead Shanghai’s innovation and restructuring with intelligent manufacturing and the Internet-based new economy.
Wang Zhen, Vice President of SASS, Ma Yuan, Director of Bureau of Scientific Research Management of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), and Wen Xueguo, Executive Vice President of Shanghai Academy, attended and addressed the meeting. Ji Weimin, Vice Director of the Institute of Journalism and Communication, CASS, and member of the Academy Affairs Committee of Shanghai Academy, also attended the meeting. Sun Fuqing, Director of the Institute of Applied Economics of SASS, presided over the meeting.
Huang Qunhui, Director of the Institute of Industrial Economics of CASS, and Li Wei, Vice Director of the Institute of Applied Economics of SASS, made keynote speeches on the meeting respectively.
By focusing on the theme of “The Risks of Imbalanced Real Economy Structure and the Restructuring and Upgrading of Shanghai Manufacturing Industry”, Huang Qunhui pointed out there were such issues as the outstanding contradictions between excess production capacity and demand structure upgrading in China’s economic operation. In his opinion, there were imbalances between the real economy and the virtual economy in China; and whether the manufacturing-centered real economy can realize the restructuring and upgrading or not will decide whether China can stride across the middle-income trap. He also shared his reflections on the restructuring and upgrading of manufacturing industry and proposed that Shanghai should make great efforts to develop both real economy and manufacturing industry, not by simply increasing the proportion of manufacturing output but by promoting information-based construction and service, high-end, intelligent and green-oriented development of manufacturing industry, through the integration of modern information technology and manufacturing industry.
Li Wei’s speech was themed “Restructuring Risks and Selection of Strategic Orientation of Shanghai’s Manufacturing Industry”. In his opinion, as the orientation of industrial upgrading, increasing the proportion of the service industry has obscured the problems arising from the development of the manufacturing industry. The proportion decrease of Shanghai’s manufacturing industry might trigger the transformation risks of growth impetuses and comparative advantages, as well as the marginalization risks of middle and high-end upgrading; while to mitigate transformation risk, the commanding point strategy shall be used to lead the restructuring and upgrading of the manufacturing sector. He said that Shanghai’s commanding point strategy involves five aspects: first, innovate and lead industrial upgrading with an integrated industrial model; second, guide the industrial upgrading with innovative and entrepreneurial industrial ecology; third, actively engage in industrial division and restructuring; fourth, promote the major adjustments of industrial and policy directions with user-centered cross-border integrated industrial organizations; fifth, drive the industrial upgrading with an integrated, cooperative and open platform-based innovation system.
In the part of expert speeches, Huang Ou, Vice Director of Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization, introduced the measures of the commission on driving the intelligence-oriented restructuring of the manufacturing industry through typical demonstration projects during the restructuring and upgrading of Shanghai’s manufacturing industry. Qin Liping, Chief Economic Engineer of Shanghai Municipal Development and Reform Commission, analyzed the indicators and tasks during the restructuring and upgrading of Shanghai’s manufacturing industry. Yu Hongsheng, Secretary General of the Shanghai Branch of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, suggested that experts and scholars had better associate industrial structure adjustment with regional layout adjustment to study the restructuring and upgrading issues of manufacturing industry.
Chen Yao, Director of Division of Regional Economics of the Institute of Industrial Economics, CASS, Li Xiaohua, Director of the Division of Industrial Distribution of the Institute of Industrial Economics, CASS, He Jun, Director of the Division of Small and Middle-Sized Enterprises of the Institute of Industrial Economics, CASS, and Nie Yongyou, Executive Vice Dean of the School of Economics, Shanghai University, respectively addressed the meeting on the topics of “Manufacturing Upgrading under Non-core Function Dispersal”, “‘New Economy’ and New Opportunities of Shanghai’s Development”, “Constructive Industrial Policy Studies and ‘Well-designed’ Industrial Policies”, and “The Internal Mechanism and Path of the Restructuring and Upgrading of China’s Manufacturing Industry According to Research on Product Space Theory”.
Sun Fuqing pointed out in the conclusion that the main issues concerning the restructuring and upgrading of Shanghai’s manufacturing industry included: first, the linkage construction issues on the construction of Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Center and the transformation of Shanghai’s manufacturing sector; second, what services and contributions should be made in the construction of Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Center for the restructuring and upgrading of the manufacturing sector; and third, how to build a complete ecological chain of manufacturing industry.
A total of more than 30 experts and scholars from CASS, SASS and other relevant research institutions and parts of media attended the meeting. Yang Huijun, Director of the Secretariat of Shanghai Academy, Xiong Hou, Director of Research Division, Shanghai Academy, Chen Yuegang, Vice Director of Research Division, Shanghai Academy, and others were also present at the meeting.
(Written by Xiang Jinmei Photo by Zha Jianguo)
