China has been strengthening large-scale equipment upgrades in the industrial sector this year, promoting industrial development and the green transformation while unleashing potential domestic demand, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).
Investment in equipment, tools and instruments increased by 16.4 percent year on year in the first three quarters of 2024, with especially high growth in the production of high-tech and high-value-added products such as AI chips and servers.
"Large-scale equipment upgrades are not just short-term economic stimulus measures, but also medium and long-term measures consolidating the foundations of the economy. Through this policy stimulus, the space for updating these idle assets will be opened up, promoting the development of the economy and injecting over five trillion yuan (about 691.3 billion U.S. dollars) into economic development," said Fan Meng, director of the Industrial Investment Research Office at the Planning Research Institute of the CCID Consulting under the MIIT.
According to the MIIT, China will carry out large-scale equipment upgrades in 27 key industrial sectors in the next step, including petrochemical and chemical industries, the iron and steel industry, auto industry, industrial robotics and shipbuilding industry.
Upgrades of Chinese industrial equipment accelerate through 2024
China's economy has maintained a generally stable growth in 2024, with impressive achievements made in the development of manufacturing and new quality productive forces, said economists.
The Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee held a meeting on Dec 9 to analyze and study economic work in 2025. The meeting noted that the year 2024 marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China and a critical year for achieving the goals and tasks of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025).
From a macro perspective, China's economic operation has maintained generally stable with steady progress in 2024, and the main goals of social and economic development will be successfully achieved.
"In 2024, China's macro-economy have shown signs of stabilization on the basis of continued structural adjustment, and with the growth rate, the country will be able to achieve the annual target of around 5 percent," said Liu Yuanchun, President of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics.
In 2024, China's industrial structure has continued to upgrade in high-quality development, laying a solid foundation for the stable economic development.
In the first three quarters, the added value of industrial enterprises above designated size (those with annual main business revenue of 20 million yuan or more) increased by 5.8 percent year on year. Among them, the added value of equipment manufacturing and high-tech manufacturing industries above designated size increased by 7.5 percent and 9.1 percent year on year, respectively.
"Our manufacturing industry has maintained a relatively strong growth, and the strongest performing industries among them are high-tech manufacturing and high-end equipment manufacturing," said Wu Sa, deputy director of the Chinese Academy of Macroeconomic Research.
In 2024, China has witnessed steady development of new quality productive forces
Wu said that it not only promoted the development of emerging industries and future industries, but also empowered traditional industries and provided new impetus for the construction of a modern industrial system.
"For example, at the Zhuhai Air Show that just ended, we saw the debut of many high-tech products, including humanoid robots and dog robots, as well as some low-altitude economic and low-altitude aircraft. These are all very vivid examples of the development of our new quality productive forces. It not only simply indicates the success of these products, but also indicates that we have laid a more solid foundation for building a modern industrial system, and the overall momentum and driving mechanism of development have become better," Wu said.
China's economy maintains stable growth in 2024 with impressive achievements: economists
