Editor's note: The fourth plenary session of the 20th Communist Party of China Central Committee has adopted the recommendations for the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30), setting China's development course for the next five years. China Daily is launching a new series dedicated to interpreting the plenum and the plan.

China's emphasis on the establishment of a modernized industrial system — a top priority for the country's development over the next five years — will provide strong momentum for high-quality economic growth and create a new competitive edge, while bolstering the resilience of industrial and supply chains to navigate external uncertainties, experts and company executives said.

Highlighting the key role of sci-tech innovation in fostering new growth drivers, they called for driving industrial upgrades by integrating cutting-edge digital technologies with the real economy, and further enhancing enterprises' independent innovation capabilities to achieve breakthroughs in core technologies in key fields.

Their comments came as the Recommendations of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China for Formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development places "building a modernized industrial system and reinforcing the foundations of the real economy" as the first strategic task.

China should keep its focus on the real economy, continue to pursue smart, green and integrated development, and work faster to boost strengths in manufacturing, product quality, aerospace, transportation and cyberspace, according to a communique issued on Thursday after the conclusion of the fourth plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, during which participants deliberated on and adopted the recommendations.

The share of manufacturing in the national economy should be kept at an appropriate level, and a modernized industrial system should be developed with advanced manufacturing as its backbone, the communique said.

Luo Zhongwei, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of Industrial Economics, said, "The key to transforming and upgrading traditional industries lies in accelerating the adoption of new-generation information technologies, including artificial intelligence, 5G, big data and the internet of things."

The move to establish a modernized industrial system and develop the real economy during the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) period is of vital significance in promoting the intelligent, high-end and green transformation of industries, consolidating the economic recovery momentum and boosting the country's capacity to buffer external challenges and headwinds, Luo said.

He called for efforts to step up research and development investment in crucial technologies, including basic materials and software, precision components, integrated circuits and high-end equipment, strengthen intellectual property rights protection and optimize the business environment to enhance the country's core competitiveness on the global stage.

Pan Helin, a member of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's Expert Committee for Information and Communication Economy, said that China's advanced manufacturing sector has become a cornerstone promoting high-quality economic growth, and it plays an increasingly pivotal role in boosting technological innovation and helping the country gain an upper hand on the global stage.

"It is very crucial to boost the development of the manufacturing sector toward a higher-end, smarter and more eco-friendly direction over the next five years," Pan said, underscoring that modernizing the industrial system will be conducive to moving Chinese manufacturing industry up to the medium — and high-end of the global value chain.

China has ranked as the world's largest manufacturer for 15 consecutive years and its manufacturing output accounts for about 30 percent of the global total, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Fostering new industries

Zheng Shanjie, head of the National Development and Reform Commission, said at a news conference in Beijing on Friday that the recommendations of the CPC Central Committee for the 15th Five-Year Plan stressed efforts to create emerging pillar industries and accelerate the development of strategic and emerging industry clusters, including new energy, new materials, aerospace and the low-altitude economy.

The recommendations also called for fostering future-oriented industries such as quantum technology, biomanufacturing, hydrogen energy and fusion energy, brain-computer interfaces, embodied intelligence, and sixth-generation mobile communication, Zheng added.

Zhu Keli, founding director of the China Institute of New Economy, said that faced with increasingly fierce international competition, nurturing strategic emerging industries and future-oriented industries will inject fresh impetus into the country's high-quality development and propel the cultivation of new quality productive forces.

"A modernized industrial system places great emphasis on smart, green and integrated development, with intelligent digital technologies applied to enhance production efficiency and drive industries to transition from a labor-intensive to a technology-intensive model," Zhu said.

He underlined the need to bolster the deeper integration of state-of-the-art technologies with the real economy, speed up the industrial application of innovative achievements, and step up policy support for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises to further sharpen their innovative edge.

China's industrial sector maintained upward momentum and saw continuous improvements in the quality of growth in the first three quarters of this year. The country's value-added industrial output rose 6.2 percent year-on-year from January to September, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics.

Noting that the manufacturing industry is the main body of China's real economy, Zhou Yunjie, chairman and CEO of Chinese home appliance giant Haier Group, said, "As the country is making efforts to build itself into a manufacturing powerhouse, more push is needed to promote innovative application of the industrial internet and fully unleash the value of massive data resources, which is also the key to advancing new industrialization."

Li Dongsheng, founder and chairman of Chinese consumer electronics company TCL Technology Group Corp, said that China's resolve to put the development focus on the real economy and build a modernized industrial system has set a clear direction for the country's high-tech manufacturing sector, which has become an important driver of the country's high-quality development.

"China's new growth engines come from industrial transformation and upgrading, and technological innovation," Li said, adding that the company has invested more than 60 billion yuan ($8.4 billion) in R&D over the past six years, and will step up its push in emerging sectors, such as AI, augmented reality, virtual reality, next-generation display technology and new energy photovoltaic panels.

Attracting foreign firms

Norbert Meyring, head of industrial manufacturing and automotive sector at KPMG China, said that China's attractiveness to foreign businesses remains fundamentally robust, as the country's vast consumer base and integrated industrial ecosystem remain irreplaceable for companies' global business expansion, especially in advanced sectors such as electric vehicles, green tech and digital services.

"Foreign firms increasingly value China's deep talent pool, advanced infrastructure and burgeoning innovation clusters for R&D and high-end manufacturing — assets harder to replicate elsewhere quickly," he said, adding that China's unique combination of scale, advanced manufacturing capabilities and innovation potential ensures it remains a strategic hub.

Anu Rathninde, president for Asia-Pacific at Johnson Controls, a United States-based smart building solutions provider, said that China's economy is propelled by digital transformation and some key industries such as smart manufacturing and modern services, creating many opportunities for sustainable innovation.

The company has continuously focused on its industrial innovation capabilities in alignment with China's advanced manufacturing and its digital economy, Rathninde said, adding that it supports the development of AI and digitalization with sustainable data center solutions.