World Manufacturing Conference 2025: China Promotes the Development of the World's Manufacturing Industry

World Manufacturing Conference 2025: China Promotes the Development of the World's Manufacturing Industry

The 2025 World Manufacturing Conference will be held in Hefei, Anhui Province, China from September 20 to 23. With Slovakia as the guest of honor, more than 16,000 people from over 40 countries and regions, including government officials and representatives of Fortune 500 companies, attended the event.

The event featured 10 comprehensive exhibition areas, covering a total area of 20,000 square meters. Among them, the intelligent robot exhibition area, which was set up for the first time, brought together the innovative achievements of more than 40 enterprises from around the world, including more than 20 Chinese enterprises, and showcased the advanced achievements and wide applications of intelligent robots. In addition, there are sections such as the Great Nation Manufacturing Exhibition, the International Exhibition, and the Anhui New Industrialization Achievements Exhibition.

Christian Wulf, honorary chairman of the Global Alliance of Small and Medium Enterprises, said at the opening ceremony, "It is a great honor to attend the World Manufacturing Conference for the fourth time. Every time, I have deeply felt the powerful driving force of innovation and the firm confidence in cooperation here." "Small and medium-sized enterprises need to be more closely integrated into the global value chain to obtain technical support and a fair competitive environment. Openness, innovation and deepened cooperation are the eternal rules of success for industrial development. Only in this way can China and Germany achieve mutual benefit and win-win results."

Looking beyond the data, China leads the trend of the world's manufacturing industry.

In recent years, China's manufacturing industry has developed rapidly and made a huge contribution to global manufacturing. China's manufacturing added value rose from 26.6 trillion yuan to 33.6 trillion yuan from 2020 to 2024, contributing more than 30 percent to global manufacturing growth and remaining the world's largest in scale for 15 consecutive years, according to Li Lecheng, minister of Industry and Information Technology of China, at a press conference on September 9. Of the world's 504 major industrial products, China leads the world in production of most of them."

High-tech manufacturing stands out. In August, the added value of high-tech manufacturing above designated size rose 9.3% year-on-year, according to data from China's National Bureau of Statistics. By industry, the added value of high-tech industries such as aircraft manufacturing, biopharmaceutical manufacturing and electronic industry equipment manufacturing rose by 27.9 percent, 14.5 percent and 10.4 percent respectively.

The green transformation has achieved remarkable results. In August, China's green products such as new energy vehicles, lithium-ion power batteries for automobiles and solar cells performed well, with production increasing by 22.7 percent, 44.2 percent and 16.8 percent respectively year-on-year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics of China. The production of green equipment such as wind turbines and charging piles grew rapidly, with growth rates of 78.1% and 14.9% respectively, driving the global green industry's capacity upgrade.

The prosperity of China's manufacturing industry is inseparable from the strong support of the Chinese government. In 2025, the central government allocated 11.878 billion yuan in special funds for the manufacturing sector, an increase of 14.5 percent, providing financial support for high-quality development in key areas of manufacturing. At the same time, the "two new" policies, namely the large-scale equipment renewal and the trade-in of consumer goods, have had a significant boosting effect on the manufacturing sector. In addition, enterprises' independent innovation capabilities have been continuously enhanced. The number of high-tech enterprises in China reached 463,000 in 2024, 1.7 times that of 2020. The number of PCT patent applications reached 68,000, accounting for 24.7 percent of the global total, remaining the world's largest, and many major landmark achievements were made in fields such as circuits, high-speed rail, ships and Marine engineering.

It is worth noting that while achieving their own development, Chinese enterprises have not chosen to work in isolation but have actively integrated into the global market and promoted international cooperation. In the first half of 2025, exports of the "new three" products, namely new energy vehicles, photovoltaics and lithium batteries, increased by 12.7 percent year-on-year, continuing the strong growth trend in recent years and providing key support for the global green transition. In the construction along the Belt and Road Initiative, in the first half of 2024 alone, there will be over 800 cooperation projects in the fields of new energy and high-end equipment. The participation of more than 40 countries and regions in the world Manufacturing Conference also confirms that China's manufacturing industry is willing to provide an open, cooperative, mutually beneficial platform opportunity for the global manufacturing industry.

Through the data, China's manufacturing industry has developed rapidly, and countries around the world have strengthened cooperation on advanced manufacturing concepts and technologies through this conference, promoting the development of the world's manufacturing industry towards high precision and green capacity.