Guangzhou Photo: VCG

China will continue to support the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to focus on smart manufacturing, accelerating the development of advanced manufacturing, and promote the development of high-end, smart and green manufacturing, an official from the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said recently.

The remark came amid Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area starting to cultivate and develop new industries to promote the transformation and upgrading of foreign trade, and high-quality economic development.

Official data shows that from January to September this year, the southern city of Zhuhai's industrial investment increased by 66 percent, with the growth rate of industrial added value reaching 8.5 percent, ranking first in South China's Guangdong Province. 

China will continue to support the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area in building a digital pilot zone for global trade, promoting the sustainable and healthy development of new business formats such as cross-border e-commerce, Zhang Guanbin, an official from MOFCOM said during a forum held on Sunday.

Chinese manufacturing firms are also gearing up to accelerate industrial transformation in a bid to foster a broad upgrade of local manufacturing that "is not only bold, but also robust and smart", analysts said. 

In an interview with Mark Wilson, head of America Research Center from manufacturing giant Midea Group in Guangdong Province, said China's manufacturing systems are competitive globally.   

"I think China's white goods manufacturing has been proved to be better than many other markets," he said.  

When asked what kind of gaps exist between Chinese manufacturing sector in catching up with the world's advanced levels, Wilson said as Chinese companies will continue to invest in automation and digitalization systems, they will work to further decrease production costs that happen in the developed countries. 

Data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology revealed that the added value of China's manufacturing sector increased from 16.98 trillion yuan ($2.46 trillion) in 2012 to 31.4 trillion yuan in 2021.

To promote the transformation of the manufacturing industry, China has built a modern industrial system led by the advanced manufacturing industry, promoting the manufacturing industry to march into the middle- and high-end of the value chain.

Regarding cooperation across science and technology between China and the US, there are always voices claiming that China and the US are "decoupling" in technology, however, he said it would be painful for both countries if China and the US were to decouple scientific and technological cooperation, leaving both countries "worse off "because of it.  

As a leading technology company, Tencent is now using digital technology to help the high-quality development of the real economy. 

Headquartered in Bao'an district in Shenzhen city, Tencent's Cloud Industrial Internet Headquarters is accelerating digital technology transformation in the Bay Area and to the whole country. 

Cao Lei, vice president of Tencent Cloud told the Global Times that the company hopes to continue to make use of its scientific and technological strength to help the Greater Bay Area build a world-class bay area and a modern cluster of cities.