February 3, 2016
Nick Marro
Chinese regulators unveiled in October more detailed plans for transforming the country into an advanced manufacturing powerhouse. Released by the Leading Group for Creating a Strong Manufacturing Country, identified by the US-China Business Council (USCBC) as a high-level interagency task force created by the State Council to implement the “Made in the China 2025” initiative, the announcement forms a “key technology roadmap” for the sectors in the plan.
This roadmap identifies key sectors, production localization targets, and specific products that China hopes to produce domestically by 2025, spanning a variety of industries ranging from information technology and materials, to new energy vehicles and advanced biomedical engineering. These targets include domestic and international market share goals that USCBC members flagged due to the lack of clarity on foreign company participation and competition concerns. Notably, the roadmap includes calls for “secure and controllable,” “secure and reliable,” and “indigenous and controllable” product development in several areas, including information and communications technology equipment, but also in aerospace, rail, and new energy vehicle sectors.
A helpful USCBC chart lists the specific sectors and their localization targets in 2020 and 2025 as identified by the roadmap. How this information will fit into various Made in China Action Plans sprouting at the local level—mirroring those at the provincial level in Jiangsu, Sichuan, Hubei, Gansu, and Liaoning, and those at the municipal level like Nanjing and Beijing—and whether foreign companies will have opportunities to leverage their technology, experience, and expertise remains to be seen.