The National Advanced Manufacturing Conference will be held in Beijing from September 16th to 17th, 2026. It is worth noting that the Party Central Committee and the State Council have issued important instructions for the development of advanced manufacturing industry.
 
China is the only country in the world that has all the industrial categories in the United Nations Industrial Classification, covering 41 major industrial categories, 207 medium categories, and 666 subcategories. From upstream raw materials and midstream components to downstream whole machine manufacturing, it has formed a complete industrial chain that is independent, controllable, collaborative, and efficient. This is a solid foundation for China's advanced manufacturing industry to cope with risks and challenges, and to move towards the high-end of the global value chain.
 
In terms of scale, China's manufacturing added value accounts for nearly 30% of the global total, ranking first in the world for 16 consecutive years. By 2025, the proportion of manufacturing added value to GDP will be 24.7%, and the proportion of high-tech manufacturing to industry will increase to 17.1%. In the first half of 2026, the added value of industries above designated size increased by 5.4% year-on-year, while the added value of equipment manufacturing and high-tech manufacturing increased by 9.3% and 13.3% respectively; The new driving forces represented by high-tech manufacturing and digital product manufacturing contribute more than 50% to the growth of industries above designated size. These data indicate that advanced manufacturing has become a key force in stabilizing growth, adjusting structure, and promoting transformation.
 
“ Fifteen Five Year Plan; In the first year, the advanced manufacturing industry was placed at the height of the support base of Chinese path to modernization. Focusing on the new generation of intelligent manufacturing, through; Artificial Intelligence+Manufacturing; The combination of cluster upgrading, independent and controllable industrial chain, and integration of the two industries will systematically promote the expansion and strengthening of advanced manufacturing industry. And around several key directions, we will coordinate the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, the cultivation and growth of emerging industries, and the forward-looking layout of future industries, in order to maintain and develop a complete industrial system.
 
Direction 1: Deepening the promotion of intelligent manufacturing. Accelerate the development of a new generation of intelligent manufacturing and promote the manufacturing industry; Smart transformation from digital to online connectivity; Build smart factories and high standard digital parks. Advance“ Artificial Intelligence+Manufacturing; Special action to promote the large-scale application of 5G, industrial Internet and other technologies in the manufacturing field. The integration of artificial intelligence and manufacturing will start from; Machine substitution for human; Moving towards“ Data driven; To achieve intelligent decision-making, intelligent optimization, real-time monitoring, and flexible scheduling in various stages of production and manufacturing.
 
Direction 2: Accelerating the green and low-carbon transformation. Collaboratively promote the optimization of industrial structure and energy consumption structure, accelerate electrification transformation and green energy application. “ Fifteen Five Year Plan; During this period, we will cultivate and construct 500 zero carbon factories, and strive to achieve a comprehensive utilization capacity of over one million tons of waste power batteries by 2030. Strengthen the supply of green and low-carbon technologies, explore the creation of zero carbon factories and parks, and steadily achieve the goal of peaking carbon emissions in the industrial sector.
 
Direction three: Collaborative growth of emerging pillar industries and future industries. Accelerate the development of emerging pillar industries such as integrated circuits, aerospace, biomedicine, low altitude economy, new energy storage, and intelligent robots; Promote future industries such as quantum technology, biomanufacturing, hydrogen and fusion energy, brain computer interfaces, embodied intelligence, and sixth generation mobile communication (6G) to become new economic growth points.
 
Direction 4: Deep integration of advanced manufacturing and modern service industries. Accelerate the cultivation of new models and formats such as platform based design and personalized customization, and innovate the development of service-oriented manufacturing. Promote the manufacturing industry towards; Smile Curve” Extend at both ends, promote innovative allocation of production factors, and improve total factor productivity.
 
Direction 5: Deep integration of industrial chain innovation chain. Strengthen original innovation and key core technology research and development, establish and make good use of national manufacturing innovation centers, manufacturing pilot platforms and other carriers, guide innovation resources to gather in enterprises, improve the enterprise led industrial innovation ecosystem, and continuously enhance the overall efficiency of the manufacturing innovation system. Persist“ Industry questions, technology questions” Promote the acceleration of primitive technology towards pilot testing and achieve large-scale application.
 
Direction 6: Continuously improve the cluster hierarchical cultivation system. The hierarchical development system based on national clusters as the backbone and provincial clusters as the foundation will be further improved, promoting advanced manufacturing clusters to move towards world-class levels. Each region should build a modern industrial system tailored to local conditions, expand and strengthen the real economy, and form a new pattern of regional industrial development with unique characteristics and complementary synergy.
 
Overall,“ Fifteen Five Year Plan; During this period, China's advanced manufacturing industry will continue to work hard on the track of intelligence, greening and integration, drive the overall leap of the industrial system with breakthroughs in key directions, and provide solid material and technical support for building a modern industrial system with advanced manufacturing as the backbone and promoting Chinese path to modernization.