Global Times: Xiang Wenbo, President of Sany Heavy Industry: Private enterprises should be explorers of innovation and development

Source: Global Times

After more than 30 years of reform and opening up, the scale of China's manufacturing industry has jumped to the world's *5656, and it is now on the eve of transformation and upgrading. The current slowdown in the growth of the domestic market is not only a challenge but also an opportunity for "Made in China", and the key to see whether "Made in China" can transform from scale advantage to innovation-driven, like the United States, Germany and Japan enterprises in the last century, complete their own "thrilling leap" and establish sustainable global competitiveness. Among all kinds of ownership enterprises, private enterprises often have the most firm market orientation, the most flexible incentive mechanism, the strong innovation momentum, and the main body of innovation with outstanding vitality.

In the past 30 years, the role of private enterprises in enhancing the strength of "Made in China" is obvious to all. Taking the construction machinery industry in the manufacturing industry as an example, the top 10 of China's excavator market in the last century are foreign brands, more than 90% of the concrete machinery market is occupied by German companies, and the construction site is basically imported equipment. Just over a decade later, China's construction machinery industry has successfully achieved import substitution and developed into one of the most globally competitive industries, with Sany Heavy Industry alone occupying the world's 5656 in concrete machinery, excavators and other products in China*5656. The world's longest 86-meter pump truck, the world's *5655 3600-ton crawler crane, and Asia's *5656 1,000-ton all-road surfacecraneand other products, all of which have been created in the wisdom and sweat of scientific researchers in China's private enterprises. China's construction machinery industry has undergone earth-shaking changes in the past 10 years, the key is innovation, and private enterprises have become the "catfish" that stimulate the innovation vitality of the industry.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the central government has elevated the innovation-driven development strategy to a strategy that determines the future and destiny of the nation, and has focused on promoting innovation with enterprises as the main body. As one of the important construction forces of socialism with Chinese characteristics, private enterprises are not only important participants in the historic transformation process from "Made in China" to "Created in China", based on their own unique advantages, but also have the responsibility to become explorers of innovation-driven development strategy.

The innovation and exploration of private manufacturing enterprises is first of all the exploration of new technologies. "If science and technology prosper, the nation will prosper, and if science and technology are strong, the country will be strong." At present, a new round of scientific and technological reform is emerging, and some important scientific issues and key core technologies have shown the harbingers of reform breakthroughs, which will bring huge opportunities for the innovation of manufacturing-related technologies. Increasing research on new technologies is not conducive to enhancing the competitiveness of private manufacturing enterprises, but will also promote the upgrading of China's manufacturing industry.

Looking back on the development of China's construction machinery industry, it is actually a process of exploring new technologies. By solving technical problems such as ultra-high pressure pumping, we have successfully realized product import substitution, which has brought an average annual growth of 60% for 10 years and an average annual growth of more than 25% in the industry. By overcoming the difficulties of core component technology and advanced control technology, it has greatly improved the efficiency of equipment construction, reduced product costs and energy consumption, created great value for customers, and always maintained high profitability, and continuously reflected China's strength in the global market competition.

The innovation and exploration of private manufacturing enterprises is also the exploration of new markets. Since its birth, private enterprises have been connected with the market bloodline, constantly discovering new markets, and meeting market demand through innovation, which is a real source of profit for private enterprises. Therefore, in the discovery and grasp of new markets, private enterprises should invest more energy and enthusiasm to develop and innovate.

I have always believed that there is a lot of potential in China and the global market. At present, although the manufacturing industry is experiencing a decline after rapid growth, this is only a balance after the traditional market demand returns to normal. In the future, there are still two huge markets for China's manufacturing industry to be developed, one is China's urbanization and rural market, and the other is the international market. The private manufacturing industry has a great future in these two markets, especially in the international market, and it will be the only way for China's private enterprises to grow into *5653 enterprises.

The innovation and exploration of private manufacturing enterprises is still the exploration of new models. Model innovation is sometimes more able to bring about transformative changes in the industry than technological innovation, thereby changing the life cycle of the industry. In the construction machinery industry, the gradual establishment of the product aftermarket business model has brought new sources of profit to all enterprises in the industrial chain, and reduced the fluctuations caused by the slowdown in demand for the host to a certain extent; The overseas product R&D and manufacturing model of "European and American definition, Chinese design, and global manufacturing" has also greatly enhanced the innovation ability of enterprises and the ability of international market development, and at the same time provided a reference for Chinese enterprises to think about internationalization.

Manufacturing is a typical traditional industry, and it is also an industry closely related to cutting-edge technology and cutting-edge management theory. Caterpillar, the leader of the global construction machinery industry, has a history of more than 100 years and has been ranked among the world's top 500 companies, and the fundamental reason is the unremitting pursuit of innovation.

China's private manufacturing enterprises have experienced the transformation from a planned economy to a market economy, and have accumulated enterprise management experience and innovation capabilities. In the current great transformation of China's manufacturing industry, in the construction of an innovative country, private manufacturing enterprises are not only the main body of innovation, but also the new force of innovation, and should undertake a more important historical mission and make greater contributions to the realization of the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. ▲ (Xiang Wenbo, the author is vice chairman and president of Sany Heavy Industry)