China has maintained its position as the world’s largest manufacturing country for the 11th consecutive year with the industrial added value reaching 31.3 trillion yuan ($4.84 trillion), according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Monday.
Meanwhile, top computer vendors including Acer and Lenovo are adopting sustainable strategies, with laptops made of recycled and environmentally-friendly materials and efforts to achieve carbon neutrality.
It’s the latest trend in the booming personal computer market, fuelled by demand for remote working and online learning during the pandemic. In the first quarter, global personal computer sales jumped over 55 percent, researchers said.
Acer’s new platform Earthion, from the words Earth and Mission, targets green and sustainable technologies and products. The first Earthion product is the Aspire Vero laptop, which is made of recycled materials.
Acer is hoping more suppliers and partners will join the Earthion platform to boost product design and process development in green and sustainable ways, said Jason Chen, Acer’s chairman.
In addition to business goals, innovation and growth should serve the purpose of making life better, society more inclusive and the environment more sustainable, said Lenovo, which posted record revenue of 412 billion yuan (US$63.4 billion) in the fiscal year ended in March.
Environmental, social and corporate governance has become a key standard for a good and reliable company, according to both Chen and Yang Yuanqing, Lenovo’s chairman. Lenovo is exploring carbon neutrality and has a target of net zero emissions by 2050.
As the world’s largest PC vendor, Lenovo alone accounts for 25 % of the global supply, while Acer is in 5th position, according to researcher International Data Corp.
China’s manufacturing industry aa a whole makes up nearly 30 percent of the global manufacturing industry. During the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020), the average growth rate of the added value of the high-tech manufacturing industry reached 10.4 percent, which was 4.9 percent higher than the average growth rate of the industrial added value, said Xiao Yaqing, minister of industry and information technology at a press conference.
The added value of the information transmission software and information technology service industry has also increased significantly, from about 1.8 trillion to 3.8 trillion, and the proportion of GDP increased from 2.5 to 3.7 percent, Xiao said.
Chip industry
China’s integrated circuit sales revenue is expected to reach 884.8 billion yuan in 2020 with an average growth rate of 20 percent, which is three times the global industry growth rate over the same period, Xiao said.
The country will continue to cut taxes for enterprises in this field, strengthen and upgrade the foundation of the chip industry, including materials, processes, and equipment.
Xiao cautioned that the development of the chip industry is facing both opportunities and challenges. It is necessary to strengthen cooperation on a global scale to jointly build the chip industry chain and make it sustainable with Xiao saying the government will focus on creating a market-oriented, law-based and internationalized business environment.
As the world enters an unstable period, officials said that China’s industrial and information technology enterprises should be more aware of potential dangers. Many emerging industries still have room to improve and innovation and openness are always key to long-term survival.
In 2019, 133 Chinese companies entered the world’s top 500 list, including 23 well-known brands in the fields of industry and information technology.
In the list of the top 100 global digital economy companies of 2019 released by Forbes, 14 Chinese companies were listed, with China Mobile and Alibaba in the top 10.
Sources: SHINE, 2021-05-28 and CGTN 2021-03-01
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