Li Wei: Promoting High-Quality Development of China's Materials Industry

Li Wei, member of the Standing Committee of the 13th CPPCC National Committee, vice-chief engineer of CHINA IRON & STEEL RESEARCH INSTITUTE GROUP (CISRI) and academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said in a two sessions interview that China needs to become a materials power to evolve into an advanced manufacturing power.

He added that China should strengthen support for development and industrialization of new materials to guarantee domestic supply.

Li explained that China's manufacturing industry is now in a key period of transformation from high-speed to high-quality development, which greatly relies on support of the materials industry.

So far, China has had a development and production system of most types of materials in the world and the largest scale of production. Outputs of hundreds of materials have ranked top internationally for many continuous years as have scientific papers and patents in the field.

Occupying about 23 percent of the national GDP, the materials industry has evolved into a main pillar industry in China. 

However, development and industrialization of some advanced high-end materials still lag behind those of the developed countries. About 25 percent of bottlenecks of innovative technologies are caused by lack of materials.

Therefore, Li suggested that support for new materials development and mass production should be improved and integration of innovative resources in the materials field should be accelerated.

He also mentioned the importance of improving intellectual property rights protection and encouragement of scientific researchers. 

Specifically, laws and enforcement mechanisms related to intellectual property rights should be improved and stimulation documents should be implemented. 

Last but not least, Li suggested establishment of a green passage for major national materials and material application assessment institutes to improve efficiency of newly-developed materials' applications.

Li Wei, member of the Standing Committee of the 13th CPPCC National Committee, vice-chief engineer of CHINA IRON & STEEL RESEARCH INSTITUTE GROUP (CISRI) and an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, gave suggestions on high-quality development of China's materials industry at the two sessions. [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]

(Executive editor: Wang Ruoting)