China forecasts 5.7% rise in industrial growth

As a result of steady industrial recovery in 2024, the added value of industrial enterprises above the designated size in the year is projected to rise by about 5.7 percent year on year, Minister of Industry and Information Technology Jin Zhuanglong said at the National Industrial and Information Technology Work Conference held in Beijing.
"Enterprises above the designated size" is a statistical term used in China to refer to industrial enterprises each with an annual main business revenue of 2.78 million US dollars or more.
So far in 2024, the contribution of manufacturing to the GDP has remained generally stable, while investment in the sector has continued to grow, Jin said, highlighting progress in optimizing and upgrading industrial structures.
The ten major industries include iron and steel, nonferrous metals, petrochemicals, chemicals, building materials, machinery, automobiles, electric power equipment, light industry, and electronics.
The information and communications sector has also shown robust growth so far this year, according to ministry data.
As of the end of November, China had built and activated over 4.14 million 5G base stations and had more than 200 million gigabit broadband users. These achievements fulfilled the relevant targets of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) ahead of schedule, achieving full 5G coverage in all townships.
For 2024, the total telecom business volume and revenue from software and information technology services are expected to grow by approximately 11 percent year on year, according to the conference.
"In 2025, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology aims to pilot 10 gigabit optical networks, increase the number of 5G base stations to over 4.5 million, promote optimization of the layout of computing power centers, and accelerate network upgrades to form webs for interconnected computation," Minister of Industry and Information Technology said.