China's foreign trade and export enterprises have encountered unprecedented high pressure amid the global financial crisis. Some had to close or shut down production due to a lack of either independently innovated brands or product competitiveness.
    How should these export-oriented enterprises move from "Made in China" toward "Created in China?" Reporters interviewed some relevant people on this topic.
Guests: Liu Kegu (former Vice-Governor of the China Development Bank)
Li Ruqiu (Mayor of Huizhou in Guangdong Province)
Mao Yunshi (Director of the Research Center on Enterprise and Markets under Sun Yat-sen University)
Dong Mingzhu (Vice-Chairman and President of Gree Electric Appliances)
Yang Tianfu (Chairman of Harbin Tech Full Electric Company)
Enhancing enterprises' abilities to innovate
Question: What problems are there for foreign trade and export enterprises in their transformation from a manufacturing enterprise to a creative one?
    Liu Kegu: Since the breakout of the international financial crisis, China's imports and exports have entered a period of relatively low growth. In such a situation, China should actively adjust both export products and industry structure to increase the quality and added value of export products. We should advance the export-oriented industries' gradual upgrade from being labor intensive to being capital and technology intensive. It is noteworthy that Chinese producers are strong at product imitation and rely heavily on OEM production, but they have not made full use of their potential to innovate. To realize the transformation from "Made in China" to "Created in China," Chinese enterprises shall invest more in technological development and innovation, and create more of their own patents.
    Yang Tianfu: Enterprises' innovation should be highly valued during this transformation. It is not enough to simply rely upon the raised creativity of some certain mainstay enterprises; malfunction of any trivial area might be detrimental to the complete system of creativity, and would hamper entrance of products into high-end markets. "Created in China" and "Made in China" are two completely different concepts. To a large extent, industrial processing accounts for a large proportion of the industry structure of China, and it exists in the form of processing imported materials and designs or in the form of trade processing. I think that China's manufacturing advantage is that it can incorporate very long supply chains and systems. In addition to creativity and originality in manufacturing, manufacturers also need to have different kinds of capabilities to acquire and digest information, including market fluctuation, concepts for application, as well as advances in new materials, new technologies and new processing methods, and, of course, the control of supply and support systems.
Government expected to give more support
Question: How can the government give support to boost enterprises' technical innovation?
    Liu Kegu: From a financial point of view, venture capital investment should be given crucial support by the country and should be a concern of society. At present, China's venture capital investment performs very poorly. However, in Silicon Valley in the US, where although a large number of people are making venture capital investments with relatively low success rates, numerous participants can stand together to produce great results. Currently, China's mechanisms and strength of venture capital investment is relatively weak, while some non-governmental individuals with creativity have gained no support from society. Therefore, efforts should be made to develop capital-supporting systems that help improve creativity. Banks and capital markets can provide financial services for the establishment and development of venture capital companies. The government should first focus on guiding enterprise in the correct direction, and then give policy support.
    Mao Yunshi: In the near future, the government should help small and medium-sized enterprises that have a promising future in the market to weather the difficulties by providing support to them in terms of tax reductions and exemptions, and by offering loans and loan guarantees. Meanwhile, small and medium-sized enterprises that support state-owned enterprises should also be assisted by the government. In the long term, the mechanism of the capital markets should be perfected, in particular, by setting up capital markets for small and medium-sized enterprises, and by improving the financial system and venture capital investment mechanisms. It is also necessary to establish public service platforms for small and medium-sized enterprises, including public technical service platforms. 
    Dong Mingzhu: It is very important that enterprises develop themselves. However, the support of national policies is also essential. Independent innovation for "Made in China" needs to seek the support of relevant supporting policies and break through barriers in the external environment that it cannot surpass. In order to achieve this goal, the most important thing is that the whole system of technical innovation in China makes a complete change, so that enterprises can truly become major players in innovation, in order to make innovation an important force which promotes the generation of wealth.

By People's Daily Online

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