On March 19, Xin Guobin, a member of the leading Party members group and Vice Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), presided over a symposium in Qingdao. The meeting focused on the industrial economic performance in the first quarter and the formulation of the 16th Five-Year Plan in selected provinces. Discussions emphasized the need to accelerate the enhancement of industrial technological innovation capabilities. This involves strengthening scenario-driven applications to promote the widespread adoption of new products. Key objectives include establishing emerging pillar industries such as integrated circuits, aerospace, biomedicine, and the low-altitude economy. Additionally, efforts will focus on nurturing future industries like quantum technology, embodied AI, brain-computer interfaces, and 6G.
The meeting also highlighted the importance of continuously addressing excessive, or "involution-style," competition. Enterprises are encouraged to allocate more resources towards research and development, innovation, and quality improvement. There will be enhanced monitoring and early warning systems for the production capacity of key products.
The symposium, held in Qingdao, Shandong Province, aimed to understand the current work in key regions and plan subsequent measures to stabilize industrial growth and effectively prepare for the 16th Five-Year Plan period. It was noted that since the beginning of the year, the national industrial and information technology systems have fully implemented the decisions of the Central Committee. Efforts to advance key tasks early have resulted in a positive start for industrial economy in the first two months, with value-added output of major industrial enterprises growing by 6.3% year-on-year. Work on the 16th Five-Year Plan is progressing in an orderly manner.
Moving forward, the focus will be on unifying thoughts and actions with the Central Committee's scientific assessment of the economic situation and its related policy decisions. This includes fully implementing the tasks outlined during the National People's Congress sessions, leveraging policy synergy, balancing supply and demand, promoting industrial capacity upgrades, enhancing sector governance, and consolidating the positive momentum of industrial operations.
The meeting stressed placing greater importance on stabilizing industrial growth by concentrating on key industries and regions. Efforts will involve coordinated actions on both supply and demand sides, implementing policies to stimulate domestic demand—including those related to major projects and new consumption drivers—and using high-quality supply to create and lead new demand, thereby smoothing the domestic circulation. Promoting export diversification is also key to stabilizing industrial exports.
Furthermore, the symposium called for high-quality completion of the series of plans for the industrial and information technology sector during the 16th Five-Year Plan period. This requires better coordination between national and provincial plans, streamlining overlapping or ineffective planning tasks to ensure plans are practical and yield tangible results. Deep research into significant issues related to advancing new industrialization is necessary, along with strengthening risk assessment for economic operations and policy reserves, safeguarding the bottom line of secure development, and achieving effective qualitative improvement and reasonable quantitative growth in the economy.
Representatives from the industry and information technology authorities of 13 provinces, including Hebei, Liaoning, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian, Shandong, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Guangdong, Sichuan, and Shaanxi, delivered speeches at the meeting. Relevant department heads from the Ministry also attended.
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