Monitoring promising technologies in China

The most promising technology in China, capable of changing all areas of life, is the creation of new materials. Experts from the Institute of Statistical Research and Economics of Knowledge (ISSEK) of the National Research University Higher School of Economics came to this conclusion after analyzing the current agenda of the Chinese media using the iFORA system. The projected volume of this market by 2025 will be 10 trillion yuan (132 trillion rubles). Carbon fiber is called “black gold” in this area, the use of which can reduce the weight of the product by 30–40%. Every year, the demand for carbon fiber in the country increases by 13%.

In second and third places are the industrial Internet of things (IoT) and fifth-generation communication networks. According to the Ministry of Industry and IT of China, more than 4 thousand projects using a combination of these technologies were launched in the country in 2022 (an increase of 2.2 times compared to 2021). For example, their use in the country’s first smart port, Mawan, led to the abandonment of 93 operators and a reduction in carbon emissions by more than 90%. Next in the ranking are blockchain technologies (their importance is due to the scale of online commerce) and big data (in terms of their volume, China is expected to take first place in the world by 2025 with a share of 28% of the global figure).

AI chips, the production of which China is increasing amid intensifying competition with Taiwan and the United States, took only ninth place in the ISSEK technology rating. The development plan for next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in China assumes that by 2025 the total volume of this market will reach 400 billion yuan (5.3 trillion rubles), of which the market for chips and related technologies will account for 174 billion yuan (2. 3 trillion rubles).

ISSEK notes that the digital economy is the driver of China’s economic development. From 2012 to 2021, the increase in its volume averaged 15.9%, and its share in GDP increased from 21.6% in 2012 to 41.5% in 2022. According to Inga Ivanova, a researcher at the ISSEK Center for Science, Technology, Innovation and Information Policy, the country is moving from the “Made in China” development model to the “Created in China” concept, which determines not so much the quantitative as the qualitative characteristics of goods.

Venera Petrova