Province Looks to Strategic Industries for Development

Anhui province is trying to promote the high-quality development of its manufacturing industry by nurturing more industries through scientific and technological innovation, and building more advanced manufacturing clusters.

Anhui Governor Li Guoying said although the eastern Chinese province netted a GDP of 2.97 trillion yuan ($419 billion) in 2018, while witnessing a yearly growth of 9.2 percent in industrial output, nurturing more advanced manufacturing clusters with international competitiveness is still a priority this year.

The province will prioritize strengthening key technologies in such fields as smart home appliances, electronic information, new energy vehicles, industrial robots and artificial intelligence, the governor said.

At present, there are 24 major bases under construction in Anhui, Li said, adding that Hefei's new display industry base has gathered 80 enterprises, which had a business volume of 88.8 billion yuan for those scaled industrial enterprises - each with a main business income topping 20 million yuan annually.

Meanwhile, Hefei's intelligent voice industry base, with the aim of becoming the "China Sound Valley", has attracted 571 enterprises so far, which had an output value of 65 billion yuan in 2018, Li said.

Anhui Party Secretary Li Jinbin said the province will build more strategic emerging industries so as to better promote the high-quality development of its manufacturing.

According to the Anhui Provincial Economic and Information Commission, after years of development, Anhui has established a modern industrial system, covering 40 major sectors, 31 of which involve manufacturing.

The province also has 45 provincial-level smart factories and 204 digital workshops, it said.

In Hefei, the listed iFlytek has become a national key software enterprise dedicated to intelligent speech and language technologies, software and chip product development, speech information services and integration of e-government systems. Established in 1999, it has seen its core technology - the globally recognized intelligent speech technology.

Song Guoquan, a member of the Standing Committee of Anhui Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China and Party secretary of Hefei, said that as an important window to showcase Hefei's development achievements and city image, the World Manufacturing Convention is also an important platform in attracting outside investment into Hefei.

Hefei Mayor Ling Yun noted that for cooperation projects from Hefei, the key focus should be given to the signing of cooperation agreements with the outside partners.

Meanwhile, Anhui's Ma'anshan city has organized 27 enterprises to exhibit its cooperative projects at this year's convention.

The city of Ma'anshan, where the Magang (Group) Holding, or MA Steel, is located, is striving to become a "famous city for intelligent manufacturing".

MA Steel, set up in 1958, is now an extra large-sized iron and steel giant in China with some 43,000 employees.