AT a factory in China’s north, workers are busy testing an automated vehicle designed to move bulky items around industrial spaces, one of a new generation of robots China wants to shift the country’s manufacturing up the value chain.

“The government is paying great attention to the manufacturing sector and the real economy — we can feel that,” said Ren Zhiyong, general manager of the robot’s Tianjin-based maker, Tianjin Langyu Robot Co.

China is backing R&D efforts by high-tech manufacturers like Langyu, driven by a goal to reduce reliance on imported technology and reinforce its manufacturing capability. The country’s pivot puts the focus on advanced manufacturing.

Ren expects revenues to more than double to 100 million yuan (US$15.52 million) this year from 2020, on increased demand for high-tech products such as Langyu’s automated vehicles.

More broadly, Tianjin plans to invest 2 trillion yuan between 2021 and 2025, with 60 percent earmarked for strategic emerging industries, said Yin Jihui, head of Tianjin’s industry and information technology bureau.

The investment, comprising corporate and government outlays, will help boost manufacturing to 25 percent of economy in 2025 from 21.8 percent in 2020, Yin said.

China’s five-year plan in March pledged to keep manufacturing’s share of GDP “basically stable,” in contrast to the 2016-2020 plan that focused on services to create jobs.

Manufacturing’s share of China’s GDP fell to 26.2 percent in 2020 from 32.5 percent in 2006, while the services sector has lifted its contribution to 54.5 percent from 41.8 percent, according to the World Bank.

The government does not want manufacturing to dip below 25 percent of GDP, roughly in line with South Korea’s economic profile, government advisers said.(SD-Agencies)