Experts laud Party report's emphasis on industrial and supply chains

Economic observers on Monday lauded a report, delivered on Sunday at the opening of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, for its emphasis on boosting the security and resilience of industrial and supply chains. The report's emphasis, they said, will help accelerate the nation's high-quality economic development, which will in turn contribute to global economic recovery.

The report stated: "We will raise total factor productivity and make China's industrial and supply chains more resilient and secure".

Cai Jin, deputy head of the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing, said China is the world's largest manufacturing country and boasts a vast domestic market. "As a result, the stability and resilience of China's industrial and supply chains are of high importance to the global industrial and supply chains."

Cai said China faces challenges in supply chains amid the COVID-19 pandemic, but the nation has shown strong innovative capabilities in handling them. For instance, digital technologies have played a greater role in fueling the integration of online and offline supply chains.

"As more efforts are made to secure industrial and supply chains, China's sprawling industries will see better development and have a sounder foundation," Cai said.

Bai Ming, deputy director of international market research at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, said strengthening the resilience and stability of global industrial and supply chains is widely seen as vital to ensuring the smooth running of the global economy.

In the past decades, the world has formed an inseparable industrial division of labor, with countries closely connected with each other through the industrial and supply chains, but such a landscape is facing challenges amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Bai said.

To better deal with headwinds, there is a need to promote greater international cooperation in supply chains, Bai said.

Bai said China boasts a complete supply chain support system, a strong logistics system and a big market, which are of great appeal to multinationals.

His views were echoed by Zhou Wei, a delegate to the 20th CPC National Congress, and Party secretary of Kunshan, Jiangsu province.

Zhou said Kunshan's advantages in supply chains are its biggest strength to attract foreign capital. "The reason why we have been able to maintain about one-third of the global notebook computer manufacturing market is that we have always insisted on building a complete industrial chain. We build what we lack."

According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, China is the world's largest producer and market of consumer electronics. The country makes about 80 percent of the world's personal computers and over 65 percent of smartphones and televisions.