Premier Li Keqiang speaks at a symposium attended by multiple ministries and key state-owned enterprises in Beijing on Friday, April 3, 2015. (Photo: China News Service/Liu Zhen)
China will accelerate exports of equipment and promote industrial cooperation with other countries in a bid to boost the nation's economic upgrading and nurture new advantages through further opening-up, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said on Friday.
Speaking at a symposium attended by multiple ministries and key state-owned enterprises, he highlighted "international industrial capacity cooperation", referring to a campaign that will involve moving Chinese production lines to other countries and China setting up factories with local partners abroad.
Li said these two processes will help deepen integration of the Chinese economy with the world economy.
To expedite the processes, the Chinese government plans to lift administrative approval procedures for overseas investment in most cases. Instead, a registration-based scheme for overseas investment will be introduced.
The premier said this will give domestic companies more freedom in their global operations, while competition with their global peers will drive them to become more sophisticated.
The drive will be promoted via models such as overseas economic and trade parks, project contracting, and third-party collaboration. Meanwhile, capacity cooperation will be focused primarily on countries involved in the "Belt and Road" Asian trade infrastructure initiatives, according to Li.
The premier said Chinese companies are urged to collaborate more and form industrial alliances to help themselves explore the global market.
They must be law-abiding and act ethically abroad, becoming "standard bearers" for China, he said.
China will also provide more financial support to key cooperative projects through issuing targeted bonds as it seeks to broaden the use of its foreign exchange reserves, according to Li.
China will extend loans to more countries and sectors, the premier said, and the government will also encourage Chinese-funded banks to set up more overseas branches and support domestic companies to raise new funds by using their overseas assets or equities as collateral.
China meanwhile plans to expand its export insurance coverage and improve insurance services for overseas investment.
As the world's second-largest economy enters a period of plateauing economic growth, it must interact with the world in a more sophisticated way in order to realize medium-high levels of economic growth and development, the premier said.
"Faced with severe challenges in the global economic recovery, all countries must stand together, endlessly expand mutual interests, maintain balance through cooperation, and seek development through innovation," he said.
The premier presented such cooperation as mutually beneficial given that many countries in the process of industrializing are in great need of infrastructure, while China has huge capacity to meet that need.
"Government support for equipment exports and international industrial capacity cooperation will resist the downward pressure in the Chinese economy... boost the development of countries cooperating with China as well as employment in these countries," he said.
But Li also warned of risks and urged caution in avoiding creating vicious competition among Chinese companies.
Currently, China's industrial exchange with other countries is seeing tentative signs of progress.
On March 27, Li and Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Masimov witnessed the signing of deals worth 23.6 billion U.S. dollars involving iron and steel, nonferrous metals, plate glass, refinery, hydropower and automobiles.
In the Chinese manufacturing sector, production of industrial fundamentals like iron and steel exceeds domestic demand by nearly 28 percent, while 35.5 percent of manufacturers have seen less than 75 percent of their capacity fully utilized, latest data from the Ministry of Commerce showed.
