Industrial Upgrading, Not Labor Intensive Enterprises

How should we view labor-intensive industries?

Especially in the recent period, the labor intensive industries represented by textiles, clothing and toys encountered difficulties in development, and the attitude and measures adopted by different regions were even more different.

As far as Jiangsu is concerned, the traditional manufacturing and labor-intensive industries are the advantages of Jiangsu.

The provincial Party committee and the provincial government explicitly pointed out in the decision on accelerating the pformation of the mode of economic development that we should encourage the non-public sector of the economy, actively develop labor-intensive industries, service industries and small and medium-sized enterprises, and expand employment.

We can see that through independent innovation to pform, consolidate and improve labor-intensive industries, and explore a new way to accelerate the upgrading of traditional labor intensive industries, vigorously develop new and high technology industries, and develop new industries, is an important path to adhere to scientific development.

"Do not talk about heroes in terms of heads", but still show the advantage of backwardness under multiple pressures.

Labor-intensive industries refer to industries where production relies largely on labor, but on technology and equipment.

Generally speaking, labor-intensive industries mainly refer to agriculture, forestry and textiles, clothing, toys, leather, furniture and other manufacturing industries.

In the case of the slowdown in external demand, the rise in the price of production factors and the accelerated appreciation of the RMB, the labor intensive industry as a traditional industry has increasingly encountered difficulties in the lower level of the industrial level and the technical level.

According to the statistics of the Yancheng City development and Reform Commission, by the end of 2007, the textile industry in the whole city accounted for 26.2% of the total number of Enterprises above Designated Size, and the proportion of industrial added value accounted for 25.7% of the above scale industry; the number of employed persons was 150 thousand, accounting for 1/3 of the total number of industrial enterprises employed in the whole city.

To solve the problems of agriculture, rural areas and farmers, income gap and social employment, we must rely on traditional manufacturing and labor-intensive industries for quite some time.

The scale of traditional industries in Jiangsu is the highest in China. Textile ranks first, metallurgy occupies second place, building materials rank third and Light Industry fourth.

Labor-intensive industries have played an important role in the process of industrialization. Through a large number of labor-intensive industries, we have completed the primitive accumulation of industrialization and accumulated the material strength to enter the middle and late stages of industrialization.

At the same time, compared with the high and new industries, the traditional manufacturing and labor intensive industries have mature business models, basic technology stereotypes and huge stock assets. Many industries have obvious development advantages and huge potential. They can innovate on the basis of existing knowledge accumulation and have the advantage of backwardness.

However, we must also note that we must change our vision instead of "taking the head as a hero".

Professor Hu Hanhui, director of the industrial research center of Southeast University, said that the so-called industrial classification method is based on the difference between the resources invested by different industries and the dominant position, that is, according to the relative intensity of the three production factors of labor, capital and technology in each industry, it is a theory of relativity.

It can be said that each industry has a labor-intensive segment on the global value chain, rather than just the number of workers.

For example, many people simply equate the software industry with high technology.

But Nobel Laureate in economics and India economist Amaetya Sen pointed out that India's IT industry is labor-intensive.

Simple and repetitive program code is not fundamentally different from the twisting thread of textile workers.

Bangalore, India, has to train 1.4 thousand talents of English software in a year. Here, the labor force plays a more important role than technology and capital. It uses software talents to undertake the pfer and contract of high-end enterprises such as Microsoft, so we can not equate "labor-intensive" with "low-end" and "low-grade".

Labor intensive industries and capital and technology intensive industries have a period of coexistence.

Modern labor intensive industries are associated with knowledge and technology, and can not even be completely separated.

Jiangsu Feida group is a typical example.

After completing seven processes in the country, Feida arrived at the factory in Germany, and completed the three processes of typing, opening and packaging, making it a reasonable "made in Germany".

It not only sells well in Europe, but also avoids the interference of anti-dumping, and the product price has increased by more than four times, and exported to countries such as Turkey, South America and other countries, the sales volume reached 10 million euros last year.

This year, Feida group purchased 100 acres of land in klefeld as a new product research and development base, and its annual output value will reach 100 million euros after commissioning.

For the "go out" enterprise of Feida group, its processing plants in China are labor-intensive, and R & D centers are knowledge intensive.

Therefore, the so-called low end of industry is relative to the whole global value chain. The so-called industrial appraisal right is also in the hands of multinational companies. Chinese enterprises have established their own national and even global value chain system, and they also have the right to speak.

As a big province of economy, the North South gap between South of Jiangsu and Northern Jiangsu restricts the sustainable development of Jiangsu's economy.

South of Jiangsu and North Jiangsu, the two poles of the gap between the development level, accelerate the inter regional pfer, so as to achieve the optimization of industrial structure and balanced regional development.

In recent years, the industrial pfer in North and south of our province shows a tendency of scale.

The government's push hands and private forces interact spontaneously, and a large number of projects are located in Northern Jiangsu. Textile, machinery manufacturing, steel and chemical industries and other traditional industries play the role of pioneers.

"As a traditional large manufacturing base, South of Jiangsu has a large number of manufacturing enterprises with large area, large energy consumption and traditional manufacturing.

Judging from the future development path and positioning of South of Jiangsu, the existing industrial structure must be adjusted to pform the high technology and high value-added manufacturing industry.

Professor Liu Zhibiao, Dean of the school of economics, Nanjing University, said that the pfer of traditional South of Jiangsu enterprises to northern Jiangsu has two meanings: reinforcements of Northern Jiangsu and reshaping South of Jiangsu.

South of Jiangsu has made room for more competitive and technological industries. Meanwhile, industrial pfer has fully promoted the economic development of Northern Jiangsu in the early stage of industrialization.

Industry can not "leap forward", it is related to the integrity of the economy and the coordinated development of society.

Dr. Fang Gang, a famous economist, repeatedly stressed that China's development in the next ten years, twenty years or even longer is mainly labor-intensive industries. We must face up to this reality and gradually improve the technological composition of all walks of life.

He is worried about another round of "ocean leap forward".

He said, we have no doubt that we should actively develop high-tech industries and raise the technological content of the economy, but even if we have new and more advanced industries, we must not lose those labor-intensive and competitive so-called "low-level industries", because there are still hundreds of millions of peasants who want to get jobs.

For a long time to come, the source of our competitiveness will still be labor-intensive products, or industries with much more labour force.

A group of experts who have studied Jiangsu's regional economy and North South economic cooperation for a long time believe that it is imperative for South of Jiangsu to shift labor-intensive industries.

For Northern Jiangsu, undertaking the process of industrial pfer in South of Jiangsu is one of the main channels to move towards high-end industries. We should use this process to stimulate local people's sense of commodity, market and innovation, and labor-intensive industries provide them with a classroom that can afford tuition fees.

It can be said that the pfer of labor-intensive industries is related to the integrity of Jiangsu's economy and the coordinated development of society.

Completeness does not mean that pots and pans are all over the surface, but that we continue to extend the manufacturing industry chain and grasp the integrity of the value chain.

Experts also stressed that industrial upgrading can not go all the way to the sky. It is a gradual process. The industrial pformation of newly industrialized countries and regions has been used for more than half a century. China's situation is more complex than that of newly industrialized countries and regions, and the time needed for industrial upgrading and pformation may take longer.

Most industries and regions should follow the natural evolution process from low end to high end.

The development of high and new industries needs a long time of market cultivation. It is necessary to establish a complete industrial support, build an industrial development platform, dredge the industrial circulation channels, and realize the pformation and redevelopment of the industry. How to distribute the industrial elements reasonably and evenly is a problem for policymakers to ponder.

(Cai Wei, Wang Shiting, Liu Hongqi)