Industry development takes centre stage as 15th Five-Year Plan begins

Summary

Xinhua News Agency has launched a series of reports on industrial development at the outset of the 15th Five-Year Plan period, with journalists conducting fieldwork across more than ten provinces. In the first half of the year, gross domestic product reached 69.6 trillion yuan, up 4.7 percent year on year, marking an increase of 3.6 trillion yuan – the largest for the same period in five years. Industry contributed more than 35 percent to economic growth, while manufacturing value added rose to 26.2 percent of GDP.

Over 30 percent of large-scale manufacturing enterprises have adopted artificial intelligence technologies, contributing more than 40 percent of new growth drivers. The comprehensive mechanisation rate of crop cultivation and harvesting hit 76.7 percent, with more than 800,000 combine harvesters completing the harvest of over 300 million mu of wheat in around 20 days. Bengbu Huaxin Micro-Nano's 8-inch MEMS wafer production line has reached a monthly output of 10,000 wafers, with a target of 30,000 per month.

The first phase of the Ciyuan factory in Beijing's Yizhuang area has surpassed 1.4 trillion tokens in daily capacity, aiming for a long-term goal of 10 trillion. The core industry scale of the intelligent economy has exceeded 1 trillion yuan, while the total output value of biomanufacturing stands at approximately 1.1 trillion yuan, with more than 230 enterprises releasing over 400 types of embodied intelligent complete machines. The output value of six emerging pillar industries is nearly 6 trillion yuan in 2025 and is expected to exceed 10 trillion yuan by 2030.

The International Monetary Fund has raised its forecast for China's annual growth by 0.2 percentage points. Future industries, emerging industries, and traditional industries are developing in coordination, with the Political Bureau of the Central Committee deploying measures to accelerate the building of a modern industrial system.

Commentary

China's industrial upgrading path for the 15th Five-Year Plan period is clearly mapped: advanced manufacturing, the intelligent economy, and green transformation form the core engines. In the first half of the year, manufacturing value added accounted for 26.2 percent of GDP, AI adoption in large-scale manufacturing exceeded 30 percent, and new growth drivers contributed more than 40 percent. For small and medium-sized enterprises in New Zealand, at the southern end of the Pacific, this is no distant spectacle.

China is pushing hard in cutting-edge fields such as MEMS sensors, embodied intelligence, and biomanufacturing – areas that often rely on precision components, special materials, and agricultural biological resources at the foundational level. These are niches where New Zealand can participate. For instance, the 8-inch MEMS production line at Bengbu Huaxin Micro-Nano requires high-purity silicon-based materials or gases, and New Zealand's SMEs in advanced materials and precision processing could explore partial opportunities to integrate into China's supply chain.

More notably, China's comprehensive mechanisation rate of crop cultivation and harvesting has reached 76.7 percent, signalling robust demand for intelligent agricultural machinery and precision agriculture technologies – a close match with New Zealand's expertise in pastoral automation, irrigation systems, and sustainable agricultural technology. Dairy giants such as Fonterra are already deeply embedded in the Chinese market, while smaller agri-tech companies can also leverage niche advantages in pasture breeding and carbon footprint accounting software to enter through technology partnerships rather than pure product exports, using a lightweight approach. Of course, amid the China-US technology rivalry, Chinese enterprises seeking diversified technology sources leave room for New Zealand to act as a neutral, reliable innovation partner.

With the intelligent economy's core industry scale exceeding 1 trillion yuan, New Zealand SMEs could prioritise joint innovation initiatives in industrial parks in China's second- and third-tier cities, where investment policies are often more accommodating to international small and medium-sized enterprises.

Keywords: 15th Five-Year Plan, industry development, new quality productive forces, modern industrial system, GDP, manufacturing, artificial intelligence, future industries, emerging industries, traditional industries

Source: Xinhua Net