[Photo/zj.zjol.com]

Zhejiang province will make manufacturing a top priority in its economic development, to ensure that manufacturing value-added accounts for more than one third of its GDP by 2025, and that the province becomes a global hub for advanced manufacturing by 2035, according to a recent conference on manufacturing development held by the provincial government.

The province has advantages in manufacturing development as it boasts mature digital industries involved in big data, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, 5G and blockchain technologies which have become key domains for global competition in manufacturing.

Statistics show that value-added of Zhejiang's core digital industries accounted for 10 percent of its annual GDP in 2019, and contributed 19.6 percent of GDP growth.

Digital technologies also helped the province in its fight against COVID-19, leading to the launch of the health code system, a useful tool for curbing the spread of the disease, and the production of a high-definition human-body thermal imaging system.

The province has established many innovation platforms to boost manufacturing, such as the Westlake University, Zhejiang Lab and Alibaba DAMO Academy for Discovery, Adventure, Momentum and Outlook. 

Zhejiang's R&D input increased by 14 percent in 2019 compared with the previous year, putting it among the highest in the country.

The province has also been focusing on developing a trillion-yuan petrochemical industrial cluster in recent years. The 40-million-ton refining-chemical integration project was put into operation at the end of last year, and the construction of a 20-million-ton project is accelerating.

In addition to petrochemicals, Zhejiang has been making efforts to build internationally-competitive industrial clusters in sectors including security protection, automobiles, modern textiles and others.