The State Council issued “Made in China 2025” plan on May 19, the country’s first ten-year action plan focusing on promoting manufacturing.

The plan proposed a “three step” strategy of transforming China into a leading manufacturing power by the year 2049, which marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

Nine tasks have been identified as priorities: improving manufacturing innovation, integrating technology and industry, strengthening the industrial base, fostering Chinese brands, enforcing green manufacturing, promoting breakthroughs in ten key sectors, advancing restructuring of the manufacturing sector, promoting service-oriented manufacturing and manufacturing-related service industries, and internationalizing manufacturing.

The above ten key sectors are:

1. New information technology

2. High-end numerically controlled machine tools and robots

3. Aerospace equipment

4. Ocean engineering equipment and high-end vessels

5. High-end rail transportation equipment

6. Energy-saving cars and new energy cars

7. Electrical equipment

8. Farming machines

9. New materials, such as polymers.

10.Bio-medicine and high-end medical equipment.

The country should also further open up its market and attract foreign investors to invest in key areas, such as the development of new information technology and bio-medicine, and foreign companies and institutions should be encouraged to set up R&D centers in China, it said.

The plan, mentioned in the government work report for 2015, will upgrade manufacturing in line with the rapid advances in science and technology.

Countries, both developed and developing, are reshaping their competitiveness as new technologies, including 3D printing, mobile Internet, cloud computing and new energy, emerge and China needs to urgently improve its ability to innovate and grasp these cutting-edge technologies, the plan states.

The manufacturing sector’s ability to innovate will be enhanced as it embraces state-of-the-art information technology which will result in superior products.

Basic techniques for the sector, such as those used for making key components and important materials, will also be improved under the plan.

A greater emphasis will be placed on quality management in the sector and the nurturing of world-class brands, with environmental considerations and energy efficiency to the forefront, according to the plan.