China’s Economic-Steering Initiatives

Made in China 2025

Issued in 2015, Made in China 2025 is a 10-year strategic plan that focuses on promoting and improving manufacturing in China by shifting away from lower-valued to higher-valued sectors. To ensure the transition, the government aims to improve manufacturing innovation, restructure and internationalize manufacturing, promote service-oriented manufacturing, and green manufacturing.

Initially, Made in China 2025 focuses on ten key sectors:

• New information technology;
• High-end numerically controlled machine tools and robots;
• Aerospace equipment;
• Ocean engineering equipment and high-end vessels;
• High-end rail transportation equipment;
• Energy-saving cars and new energy cars;
• Electronic equipment;
• Farming machines;
• New materials (like polymer); and,
• Biomedicine and high-end medical equipment.

Foreign investors and companies involved in these sectors may receive preferential treatment in China, compared to other sectors. In the long-run, Made in China 2025, will not only benefit foreign enterprises but also make Chinese companies more competitive at home and abroad.

Belt and Road initiative

In March 2015, the National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Ministry of Commerce of China unveiled the Belt and Road Initiative to increase regional cooperation connectivity between East Asia and Europe through the continents of Asia, Europe and Africa. The BRI will cover 71 countries, accounting for more than half of the world’s population and more than a quarter of the global GDP.

The plan includes the road-based Silk Road economic belt and the maritime-based route Maritime Silk Road, which aims to set up all-dimensional, multi-tiered and composite connectivity networks. The Silk Road economic belt focuses on increasing connectivity between China, Central Asia, Russia, and Europe (the Baltic) by linking China with the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea through Central Asia and West Asia. It also focuses on increasing connectivity between China and Southeast Asia and South Asia. The Maritime Silk Road will connect China’s coasts to Europe through the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean in one route as well through the South China Sea to the South Pacific in the other. 

On land, the initiative will focus on creating economic corridors between the different countries by taking advantage of the international transport routes, relying on key cities and industrial parks along the route as cooperation platforms. At sea, the Initiative will focus on jointly building transport routes connecting the major seaports along the route.

The key cooperation policies include:

• Policy coordination: Promote intergovernmental cooperation by coordinating economic development strategies, policies, and plans;
• Connectivity of facilities: Improve communication networks and infrastructure quality (roads, rails, ports, aviation) to build a network connecting all sub-regions in Asia, and between Asia, Europe and Africa. While doing so, efforts should be made to promote green and low-carbon infrastructure construction and operation management.
• Unimpeded trade: Improve investment and trade facilitation and focus on removing investment and trade barriers.
• Financial integration: Deepen financial cooperation by building a currency stability system as well as an investment, financing, and credit information system. In addition, increase cross-border exchange and cooperation between credit investigation regulators, credit investigation institutions and credit rating institutions.
• People-to-people bonds:Promote cultural and academic exchanges, media cooperation, youth and women exchanges, and volunteer services, to win public support for deepening bilateral and multilateral cooperation.

  Disclaimer:

  

  The Canadian Trade Commissioner Service in China recommends that readers seek professional advice regarding their particular circumstances. This publication should not be relied on as a substitute for such professional advice. The Government of Canada does not guarantee the accuracy of any of the information contained on this page. Readers should independently verify the accuracy and reliability of the information. 

  Content on this page is provided in part by Dezan Shira & Associates a pan-Asia, multi-disciplinary professional services firm, providing legal, tax, and operational advisory to international corporate investors.