China needs to become manufacturing power

Related story: China to show its IT power in CeBIT 2015, By Xinhua

An employee from a British company displays a humanoid robot at the CeBIT exhibition in Hanover, Germany on March 11, 2014. [Photo/Xinhua]

Chinese officials said in Berlin on Tuesday that China would bring its strongest showcase to CeBIT, the world's leading information technology trade fair, in Germany next month and to show its power in the IT industry.

As the partner country of CeBIT 2015, China would send over 600 exhibitors to the annual trade fair in Hanover in March.

Its central pavilion would be over 2,500 square meters and consist of over 20 enterprises which include Huawei, ZTE, Alibaba and other high-tech firms which "have influence on the global market," said Diao Shijing, Director General of the IT industry department in the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, in a press conference in Berlin.

Besides the big names, a wide range of small and medium sized enterprises would also present their latest products and solutions on smart cities, cloud computing, big data and other areas of digital economy in a total exhibition area of nearly 13,000 square meters.

"Chinese enterprises value European IT market," Diao said, adding that many of the exhibits are "exclusive innovations".

Data from China Information Technology Industry Federation showed that added value of Chinese IT manufacturing companies increased by 12.2 percent in 2014. The software industry also saw a yearly growth of 20.2 percent in sales.

"Chinese IT industry and its huge market has become an important power that is influencing the global IT industry," Diao said.

Citing China's over $200-billion spending on research and development, 3.8 million researchers, rapidly increasing number of patents, Shi Mingde, Chinese Ambassador to Germany, told reporters that he was firmly convinced that China has great potential to grow from a technology demander, as it is now, to a technology provider, but needs cooperation in this process.

"Until then, China still has a long way to go, and should learn a lot from the industrialized nations such as Germany," Shi said.

His view was echoed by Karl Wendling, a deputy director general in the German Economic Ministry who is in charge of economic cooperation with Asia.

"I am confident that the partnership of China is a good chance to develop our bilateral economic development and our cooperation in this field," Wendling said, calling the cooperation a win-win situation which will create jobs in both countries.

Data from German IT industry association BITKOM showed that China has been Germany's most important delivery country for IT products by far for many years.

"CeBIT is an excellent place especially for SMEs from both countries to exchange ideas and enter into new international markets," Dieter Kempf, President of the BITKOM association, said.