BEIJING, Dec 26 (Reuters) – China pledged on Friday to double down on upgrading its manufacturing base and promised capital to fund efforts targeting technological breakthroughs, after its industrial sector delivered an underwhelming performance this year.
China’s industry ministry expects output of large industrial companies to have increased 5.9% in 2025 compared with 2024, state broadcaster CCTV said on Friday, almost unchanged from the 5.8% pace in 2024.
It would also be less than the 6% pace of the first 11 months of 2025, based on data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, as a weak Chinese economy suppressed domestic demand.
Industrial output, which covers industrial firms with annual revenue of at least 20 million yuan ($2.85 million), recorded growth of 4.8% in November, the weakest monthly year-on-year rise since August 2024.
Chinese policymakers have been looking to create new growth drivers in the economy by focusing on advancing its industrial sector.
China has also vowed stronger efforts to achieve technological self-reliance amid intensifying rivalry with the United States over dominance in advanced technology.
At the annual two-day national industrial work conference in Beijing that ended on Friday, officials pledged to deliver major breakthroughs in building a “modern industrial system” anchored by advanced manufacturing.
The focus will be on sectors such as integrated circuits, low-altitude economy, aerospace and biomedicine, an industry ministry statement showed.
The statement comes after China launched on Friday a national venture capital fund aimed at guiding billions of dollars of capital into “key hard technologies” such as quantum technology and brain-computer interfaces.
On artificial intelligence, the industry ministry said it will expand efforts to help small and medium-sized enterprises adopt the technology, while fostering new intelligent agents and AI-native companies in key industries.
Officials also vowed to “firmly curb” deflationary price wars, dubbed “involution”, referring to excessive and low-return competition among firms that erodes profits.
($1 = 7.00 Chinese yuan)
(Reporting by Yukun Zhang, Ethan Wang and Ryan Woo; Editing by Neil Fullick and Muralikumar Anantharaman)
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