Premier says high-tech manufacturers must find new production models, boost competitiveness

Premier Li Keqiang called on high-tech manufacturers to establish their own branding and find new models of production, while transforming technologies into productivity, during a visit to East China's Jiangxi province on Tuesday.

"High-tech companies should transform science and technology into products that are highly competitive in the market. You must establish your own branding in our country and, more important, win a reputation around the world," the premier told employees of Lattice Power Co, a leading Chinese manufacturer of LED chips in Nanchang, the capital of Jiangxi.

Jiang Fengyi, founder of Lattice Power and a professor of semiconductor research at Nanchang University, said the company has patented technologies that imprint illumination materials upon silicon chips to save on energy and costs.

"The technology broke the monopoly in the field by Japan and the United States," Wang said.

The company is one of more than 30 LED-related production enterprises in the Nanchang National High-Tech Industrial Development Zone, a national semiconductor illumination base. The target revenue for these enterprises is 100 billion yuan ($15.1 billion) by 2020.

However, Lattice Power has yet to gain recognition among domestic and overseas customers. Though China's market is open to foreign manufacturers, domestic producers should strive to be recognized for their own brands in the global market, the premier said.

The new economy, including equipment manufacturing and new energy, has been a key subject for Li, who has called for nurturing these new growth drivers on many occasions, including in the Government Work Report he delivered in March.

On Monday, Li visited Funeng Inc in Ganzhou, Jiangxi, a leading producer of lithium batteries for electric vehicles. Funeng, jointly founded by the local government and the US company Farasis Energy Inc, provides batteries for a number of Chinese and international brands, including BAIC Motor Corp in Beijing.

Funeng's equipment has been tailor-made from upstream Chinese manufacturers and cost just one-sixth of equipment made in the US, said Wang Yu, chairman of Funeng.

The premier said this model should be promoted to unleash the potential for industrial equipment manufacturing and to upgrade the sector.

Li's trip to Nanchang came after a visit to southern Jiangxi, where the Long March started nearly 82 years ago.

Jiangxi is an important point along the Yangtze River Economic Belt that extends from Yunnan province to Shanghai. But the province, which faces transportation and skill disadvantages, is less developed than its neighbors Guangdong and Zhejiang provinces.

The premier's trip could encourage local governments and enterprises to set a long-term direction toward stronger market competitiveness by developing new brands and models of business, said Xia Xueluan, a professor of sociology at Peking University.