Intelligent manufacturing spurs better future in Anhui

Mohamed Noureldin, an Egyptian national with a PhD, has a particular connection with Anhui province as he once spent three years there doing his master's program, four years doing his doctor's degree and another three years as a post-doctoral researcher at Hefei-based University of Science and Technology of China.

"Anhui province and its capital city Hefei have become well known internationally in the past decades," he said, noting that "from artificial intelligence to cloud computing, China is now a leader in innovation."

The industrial world is now stepping into a period where the development of innovations and technologies is fundamentally changing the traditional way of doing businesses, and manufacturers need the right and up-to-date manufacturing technology, he said.

The Economist identified Hefei in December 2012 as the world's No 1 fastest-growing metropolitan economy, and in 2023, it praised the "Hefei model", a unique approach to fostering new industries by effectively combining the roles of State-owned capital and private enterprises.

According to the Anhui Provincial Department of Economy and Information Technology, the province has set up a modern industrial system after years of development, covering 40 major sectors, among which manufacturing spans 31 major industries.

Liang Yanshun, Party secretary of Anhui, said the province must take industry as its foundation and expand new quality productive forces and enhance Anhui manufacturers' efforts to go global.

To boost its manufacturing prowess, the 2025 World Manufacturing Convention opened on Saturday in Hefei to draw investors globally and showcase the world's latest manufacturing technologies.

The four-day gala, co-sponsored by the Anhui provincial government, a group of central government agencies and a number of global industrial associations, is in its eighth edition and aims to promote the province's advanced manufacturing abilities to the outside world, while introducing similar capabilities from the outside to Anhui.

The Government Work Report, delivered at the annual national legislative session in Beijing in March, has called for developing new quality productive forces and accelerating the development of a modernized industrial system, affirming that China will expand and strengthen advanced manufacturing.

Li Lecheng, minister of industry and information technology, said in Beijing that China's manufacturing added value accounts for nearly 30 percent of the world total, and its overall scale has remained the world's largest for 15 consecutive years.

Currently, among the 504 major industrial products in the world, the output of most products in China ranks first in the world, he said, stressing that from 2020 to 2024, the added value of the country's manufacturing industry increased from 26.6 trillion yuan ($3.74 trillion) to 33.6 trillion yuan.

Chang Yejun, deputy secretary-general of Anhui provincial government and director of the executive committee of WMC, said government officials, business representatives and business associations from over 40 countries and regions as well as heads of international organizations are attending the conference, with foreign guests accounting for over half of the total participants.

The conference had preliminarily identified 932 signed projects with a total investment of 424.6 billion yuan.

The WMC organizing committee said that during the past seven editions, the conference attracted over 40,000 guests from around the world, with a total of 4,326 projects signed, ushering in an investment of 1.2 trillion yuan, making positive contributions to helping build a strong manufacturing country and promoting global manufacturing exchanges and cooperation.

Anhui Governor Wang Qingxian stressed that in order to boost Anhui's industrial clusters, it is imperative to boost 10 new emerging industries.