A man works at a workshop of Harbin Dongan Automotive Engine Manufacturing Co., Ltd. in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, February 25, 2021. Photo: Xinhua

China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) held a meeting with manufacturing enterprises on Thursday, in a bid to set up a normalized communication mechanism and create a favorable environment for the development of the manufacturing industry.

During the meeting, a total of 10 manufacturing enterprises in areas such as electronics, petrochemical engineering, steel, equipment manufacturing, autos, food and textiles offered their views on topics including investment, consumption, exports and sustainable development.

Minister of Industry and Information Technology Jin Zhuanglong vowed to keep facilitating the internationalization of Chinese products and brands, as well as to keep providing necessary services to manufacturing enterprises.

China's official manufacturing PMI for June stood at 49, up 0.2 percentage points from May but still in contraction territory.

Despite problems including the unstable geopolitical situation, relatively weak demand and poor market expectations, China remains the main driver of economic growth for Asia and the world, and its GDP growth rate in the first half of this year is expected to be 5.5 percent, experts noted.

At the China ASEAN Forum for Emerging Industries held from Tuesday to Wednesday, officials from the MIIT said that the added value of China's strategic newly developed industries accounted for over 13 percent of national GDP in 2022, and the output value of the manufacturing industry cluster exceeded 20 trillion yuan ($2.76 trillion).

Representatives from enterprises attending the meeting expressed a positive attitude about the stable recovery of China's industry, and vowed to foster manufacturing industry-related supply chains. The MIIT also pledged to build a regular communication mechanism with enterprises, while enhancing policy support to increase global competitiveness.

Global Times