“When implementing the ‘Made in China 2025’ strategy, the government should not limit support to big companies,” Premier Li Keqiang said at the State Council executive meeting on May 17.

At the meeting, the Premier decided to promote cooperation among big, medium and small companies, and encourage them to develop smart manufacturing.

He said that big, medium and small companies in China are developing in an integrated way — small and medium enterprises (SMEs) revitalize big ones, while big companies can boost growth of SMEs. “It is an advantage of Chinese manufacturing.”

For example, in Tianjin city, an IT giant is now providing cloud computing service to nearly 50,000 companies and helping around 200,000 software engineers build platforms. A “Fortune 500” State-owned enterprise encourages its 160,000 employees to start internal businesses, generating 25,000 “startup CEOs”.

As for this phenomenon, The Wall Street Journal said new IT manufacturers and old factories in China are working together to start a new and innovation-oriented business model, in an attempt to end competition over cheap labor.

The meeting also decided to set up demonstration zones for “Made in China 2025” and smart manufacturing, in order to facilitate cooperation among big companies and SMEs.

Smart manufacturing is recognized as the “main battlefield” of the “Made in China 2025” strategy, which is expected to be integrated with the Internet Plus and mass entrepreneurship and innovation programs. Cloud platforms of industrial internet and internet-based innovation platforms will be accelerated.

The Premier used “invention” and “innovation” to elaborate on the strategy. “‘Invention’ mainly refers to scientific research, while ‘innovation’ is more market-oriented,” he said. “We are connecting the two areas. Although we are still behind in terms of scientific invention, we have a huge market and rich human resources for innovation.”

He asked authorities to further cut red tape and improve public services, in order to unleash people’s wisdom and productivity.