Source: China News Network
China News Service, Tianjin, June 24th (Reporter Liu Wenwen) During the World Economic Forum 2025 New Leaders Summit (16th Summer Davos Forum), Wu Chun, Executive Partner of Boston Consulting Group China, told China News Service reporter in an interview that China is accelerating its transformation from a large-scale manufacturing center to a global innovation origin.
Currently, China is developing rapidly in strategic emerging industries such as intelligent equipment and new energy, attracting more and more multinational companies to deeply layout: Tesla has set up a research and innovation center in Shanghai, BASF's integrated innovation base has moved into Zhanjiang, Guangdong, Siemens continues to expand its R&D layout in China... These giants are actively promoting China's transformation from traditional "world factory" to "innovation laboratory".
"Scientific and technological innovation has become the core engine driving high-quality economic development in China," according to Wu Chun, the evolution and transformation of China from a large-scale manufacturing center to a global innovation origin is not accidental, but an inevitable result of multiple factors working together.
From the demand side, China has a super-large market scale, industrial upgrading needs, and consumers' rapid acceptance of new technologies provide a unique test field and iteration power for innovation. Taking the intelligent equipment sector as an example, the complex and diverse industrial application scenarios continuously put forward higher requirements for technology, forcing enterprises to accelerate technological optimization; in the new energy sector, the strong support of national policies combined with a huge market size has significantly shortened the technical maturity cycle and achieved a rapid cost reduction. "This demand-driven innovation model has significantly compressed the time span of technology moving from the laboratory to commercialization, becoming one of the core driving forces attracting global companies to deepen their local R&D in China," Wu Chun emphasized.
From the supply side, China relies on the world's most complete industrial system covering 41 major industrial categories, 207 medium categories, and 666 small categories, providing a solid foundation for the productization of complex technologies. The scale of R&D and application talent teams continues to grow, with over 60 million high-skilled talents, and the total number of R&D personnel has been the largest in the world for many years. These key elements continue to attract global innovation resources to gather here.
At the same time, with the improvement of China's intellectual property protection system and science and technology open system, the willingness and scale of foreign investment in R&D in China have continued to rise. According to the latest version of "Multinational Companies in China" released by the China Institute of Trade and Economic Cooperation, multinational companies are accelerating the establishment of R&D centers, creating momentum for the development of new quality productivity. According to statistics, by May 2025, there were a total of 603 foreign-funded R&D centers in Shanghai; in 2024, more than 110 new foreign-funded R&D centers were recognized in Beijing, and by January 2025, the number of foreign-funded R&D centers reached 221, achieving a doubling growth.
Wu Chun further pointed out that breakthroughs in cutting-edge technologies such as digitalization and artificial intelligence in China have opened up new growth spaces for multinational companies. On one hand, multinational companies can take advantage of their rooted position in China to deeply participate in the Chinese market, increase innovation investment, and further stimulate their own innovative potential; on the other hand, multinational companies can also learn from the innovation experience accumulated by Chinese companies in the process of globalization, optimize their own strategic layout, and enhance their comprehensive competitiveness in the global market.
Looking ahead, as China's participation in high-value-added segments continues to increase, the global industrial pattern will also undergo continuous adjustment and optimization. Wu Chun believes that China, with its strong economic resilience and innovation drive, will play a more critical supporting role in global economic development, injecting a continuous stream of new impetus into world economic growth. (End)
Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7519493536811696640/
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