Industry News

XIAMEN, May 29 (Xinhua) -- The coastal city of Xiamen in east China's Fujian Province has recently hosted a forum that centered on BRICS industrial cooperation. The event brought together entrepreneurs and innovators from across the globe to drive collaborative growth, with a strong emphasis on green development and intelligent manufacturing.

Themed "Fostering an Intelligent Manufacturing Ecosystem to Accelerate the New Industrial Revolution," the BRICS New Industrial Revolution Partnership Forum attracted representatives from BRICS member states, partner countries, and other developing nations, as well as relevant international organizations from Wednesday to Thursday.

Among them was entrepreneur Yang Ziyang, who hoped to find new opportunities for cooperation with BRICS merchants. His company, founded less than two years ago, turns bamboo from Fujian's mountainous regions into fiber granule materials, promoting bamboo as a substitute for plastic.

"Orders from other BRICS countries this year have exceeded 100 million yuan (14.7 million U.S. dollars)," Yang said, noting that more BRICS countries have introduced plastic bans, creating broad prospects for green, low-carbon and environmentally friendly technologies.

Merchants from India and South Africa, he added, have taken the initiative to seek cooperation.

In recent years, BRICS countries have prioritized areas such as smart manufacturing, artificial intelligence, green and low-carbon development, industrial software, energy electronics, and digital infrastructure to boost industrial collaboration, explore cooperation opportunities, and achieve mutual benefits.

Evlin Marcelline, CEO of a hospital information system provider in Indonesia, came to Xiamen to find a Chinese partner to build a unified hospital management dashboard that orchestrates devices and staff.

"We target less than six months to find a company from China to do a pilot project in Indonesia. After that, we may do a joint venture," she said.

A lot of companies are seizing the opportunities. CATL, China's battery giant, and two Indonesian companies are collaborating on an integrated project that includes nickel mining, smelting, materials, cell production, and recycling. The project is expected to cost nearly 6 billion U.S. dollars.

Robin Zeng, founder and chairman of CATL, said the project is "a vitally important and mutually beneficial cooperation."

"New industrial revolution is not a simple upgrade of traditional industries, but an industrial transformation driven by both green and intelligent forces," Zeng said.

He added that zero-carbon technology is not a drag on growth, but rather a fresh opportunity to shift gears and race ahead, as well as a source of long-term competitiveness.

In 2018, China proposed the joint building of the BRICS Partnership on New Industrial Revolution (PartNIR). In 2020, the BRICS PartNIR Innovation Centre (BPIC) was established in Xiamen.

Since its launch, the BPIC has hosted over 40 "two-way" matchmaking events and conducted more than 90 online and offline talent training sessions. To date, 138 cooperation projects have been signed, with total investment exceeding 62 billion yuan.

Speaking at the forum, Li Lecheng, minister of industry and information technology, said China has stepped up efforts to advance new industrialization in recent years and has become the world's largest market for smart manufacturing applications.

China looks forward to strengthening exchanges and cooperation with all parties, and it will work to expand access to smart manufacturing application scenarios, deepen cooperation in areas such as standards and certification, and promote industrial matchmaking and talent exchanges, Li noted.