The National Advanced Manufacturing Conference was held in Beijing from September 16 to 17.

Held during the opening year of the 15th Five-Year Plan period, this significant gathering highlights the critical role of advanced manufacturing in China's modernization drive and signals a clear commitment to its continued growth and expansion.

The 15th Five-Year Plan calls for maintaining a reasonable share of manufacturing in the economy and building a modern industrial system anchored by advanced manufacturing. China's manufacturing sector is at a pivotal stage of transitioning from large to strong, contributing nearly 30 percent of global manufacturing output.

From January to August, the value-added output of industrial enterprises above a designated size grew by 5.3 percent year on year. Emerging sectors, including high-tech manufacturing and digital products manufacturing, contributed to more than half of this growth.

However, the advanced manufacturing sector still faces significant structural challenges. These include a mismatch between factor supply and industrial demand, uneven regional development, and insufficient coordination among industry organizations.

Cross-Sector Integration as a Growth Engine

Cross-sector integration serves as a key driver for the advancement of the manufacturing industry. For example, an AI-powered pair of glasses integrates artificial intelligence, sensors, and wireless communication technologies to offer translation, navigation, and voice recognition services. Similarly, the Luogang Park in Hefei brings together more than ten typical application scenarios, including tourism and high-speed rail inspection, providing new technologies with practical platforms.

In recent years, breakthroughs and cross-applications of IT, new materials, and biotechnology have created a range of highly integrated, innovative products and comprehensive application scenarios. Unlike traditional factor-driven growth models, this integration facilitates the reuse of technologies, reallocation of resources, and reshaping of value chains, bridging manufacturing and digital technologies with urban applications and public needs to generate new industrial momentum.

On one hand, this convergence pushes traditional manufacturing to eliminate outdated capacity and upgrade toward smart, green production. On the other hand, it breaks down barriers to industrial iteration, nurturing new technologies, business models, and forms of industry, thereby opening up fresh tracks for future industries and building a positive ecosystem for industrial advancement.

Various regions across the country are actively exploring differentiated development paths by adopting scenario-driven innovation and cross-sector approaches. Hubei province is advancing integrated development across the entire economy, promoting the deep convergence of advanced manufacturing with modern services and the linkage of the real economy and digital economy with the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries. Guangdong province has introduced initiatives such as "advanced manufacturing plus services," translating high-end, intelligent, green, and integrated development into actionable industrial strategies.

Looking ahead, the path to strengthening advanced manufacturing relies not only on technological breakthroughs but also on a mindset of integrated development. Market players must proactively align with digital technologies, urban scenarios, public needs, and global markets to reinvent their products, business models, and value propositions through innovation.

At the industry level, sustained efforts are needed to dismantle barriers across sectors, regions, and supply-demand chains, fostering an integrated ecosystem that enables technology enablement, scenario implementation, industrial clustering, and service support. Concurrently, deeper exploration into frontier fields—such as the coupling of manufacturing with artificial intelligence and biotechnology—can incubate new growth points for future industries.

Advanced manufacturing has become a key battleground in global competition. Its development is essentially about fostering the deep integration of technological and industrial innovation, and about cultivating and advancing new quality productive forces. To achieve this, it is essential to align with the latest technological revolution and industrial transformation trends, persist in the pursuit of intelligent, green, and integrated development, and push forward cross-sector scenario building and business model convergence. This will unlock market innovation vitality, elevate the quality and efficiency of China's manufacturing sector, and help it secure a leading position in the global industrial transformation.