On April 18, the Information Office of the State Council held a press conference on the development of industry and informatization in the first quarter of 2024. Shan Zhongde, vice minister of industry and information technology, said at the meeting that in the first quarter of 2024, the country's industrial economy maintained relatively rapid growth, high-quality development achieved positive results, and overall achieved a good start.

This is embodied in the following four aspects: the smooth operation of the industrial economy, the acceleration of the new type of industrialization, the steady development of the information and communications industry, and the continuous optimization of the business environment.

First, the industrial economy is running smoothly and for the better. It is mainly manifested in the rapid growth of industrial production. The added value of large-scale industries increased by 6.1% in the first quarter compared with the same period last year, an increase of 1.5 percentage points over the whole of 2023. The growth of key industries such as electronics, chemical industry and automobile has played a significant role, major industrial provinces and cities have played a leading role, and the efficiency of enterprises has continued to improve.

Second, the new type of industrialization has been accelerated. Overall implementation of key core technology projects, industrial foundation reengineering projects and major technology and equipment projects, innovation achievements continue to emerge. We will solidly promote high-quality development actions in key manufacturing industrial chains and develop advanced manufacturing clusters. The added value of high-tech manufacturing increased by 7.5% in the first quarter compared with the same period last year. The level of intelligence has been improved. We will speed up the promotion of the four integration-- the deep integration of digital technology and manufacturing technology, the deep integration of digital economy and real economy, the deep integration of information and industrialization, and the deep integration of artificial intelligence and manufacturing. At present, 421 national intelligent manufacturing demonstration factories have been cultivated. The central government has jointly issued a series of policies to support the digital transformation and intelligent transformation of enterprises, and nearly 10,000 digital workshops and intelligent factories have been built across the country. New achievements have been made in green development. Promote the industrial structure to green, low-carbon continuous optimization, hydrogen energy, new energy storage and other application scenarios continue to expand, in the first quarter, the market share of new energy vehicles exceeded 31%.

Third, the information and communications industry has developed steadily. The enabling effect of information technology is constantly magnified. 5G application has been promoted on a large scale in manufacturing quality inspection, mining production and other fields; industrial Internet convergence applications have been expanded to 49 national economic categories, forming more than 200 industrial Internet demonstration application benchmarking.

Fourth, the business environment continues to improve. Efforts have been made to create a first-class business environment that is market-oriented, legalized and internationalized, and four enhancements have been put forward-- strengthening the service to enterprises, strengthening the main body of innovation, strengthening the docking of industry and finance, and strengthening open development. In terms of strengthening services to enterprises, we will organize and carry out service actions for small and medium-sized enterprises that benefit enterprises together, solidly promote special actions to clean up accounts in arrears of enterprises, and establish and improve a long-term mechanism to solve the problem of account arrears. We have thoroughly implemented various policies to benefit enterprises, deployed the tasks of lightening the burden on enterprises this year, and made great efforts to solve the problem of "urgent and sad hope" for enterprises. In terms of strengthening the main body of innovation, we should cultivate and strengthen high-tech enterprises, specialize in new and special small and medium-sized enterprises, promote the financing and development of large, small and medium-sized enterprises, truly stimulate the vitality of enterprise innovation and enhance the momentum of enterprise development. In terms of strengthening the docking of industry and finance, financing for enterprises has totaled more than 780 billion yuan. In terms of strengthening opening up and development, we will comprehensively abolish restrictions on foreign investment in the manufacturing sector, further expand the opening up of value-added telecommunications services to the outside world, and deepen mutually beneficial cooperation with enterprises of other countries.

In the next step, we will strengthen the deep integration of scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation, promote the deep integration of digital technology and the real economy, go all out to grasp the steady growth of industry, speed up the development of new quality productive forces, and promote the construction of common technology platform and pilot verification platform. we will use information technology, digital technology, intelligent technology and green technology to promote the new industrialization and promote the high-end, intelligent and green development of the manufacturing industry. We will constantly consolidate the rebounding trend of the industrial economy, cultivate new momentum for development, and provide strong support for the high-quality and sustainable development of the industrial economy. Source: Sinochem New Network