Efforts needed from local governments to improve ecosystem

More efforts are needed from local governments to accelerate the construction of an innovation ecosystem, so as to better promote regional industrial transformation and better cultivate new quality productive forces, a Chinese economist said.

Zheng Ronghua, a distinguished professor at the Zhejiang University, said based on the reality in China, the best industrial model is to maintain a fixed scale of production capacity while increasing product profits per unit.

Since the reform and opening up, China has achieved remarkable results in the development of its manufacturing industry, Zheng said.

China ranked as the largest manufacturer for the 14th consecutive year in 2023, when its manufacturing output accounted for nearly 30 percent of the global total, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

But challenges still exist and more efforts are needed to cultivate an innovation ecosystem. Only with an innovation ecosystem can industrial clusters be formed, thereby promoting technology incubation and industrial upgrading, said Zheng, who is also the author of the book The Rise and Fall of the Economy.