Drone makers see soaring growth but dark clouds circle industry

A drone delivers a life buoy to a man in Wuhan, capital of Central China's Hubei province, May 12, 2015. [Photo/Xinhua]

In this rapidly emerging high-tech industry, there are still a lot of grey areas, blank spaces and impediments that need to be addressed before it could achieve substantial development.

One of the bottlenecks lies in the lack of mass production capability in drone makers, Xiao said. "The supply chain of civil drone industry is currently immature. Factories are still making efforts to boost the rate of production of qualified products."

Lack of a full-fledged regulatory system is also a concern, Wu said. There are currently no systematic regulations governing the civil drone industry in the country.

On Dec 30, 2015, the Civil Aviation Administration of China introduced a regulation for civil drones operating in the area of general aviation business. The regulation, which was open for public review till Jan. 8 and is expected to take effect on Feb. 1, rules that civil drones need to get operational approval before they can embark on general aviation business.