Zhang Naiwen, a deputy to the 14th National People's Congress from Jiangsu Province and Chairperson of Jiangsu Yueda Group Co. Ltd. (COURTESY PHOTO) 

Environmental damage caused by industrial emissions cannot be ignored, and accelerating green technological innovation and increasing standard setting will help promote the green transformation and high-quality development of the manufacturing industry, said a deputy to the 14th National People's Congress (NPC) during its first session, which opened in Beijing on March 5.  

“Digital technology will push the transformation of the manufacturing industry by improving product quality and production efficiency as well as reducing emissions,” said Zhang Naiwen, an NPC deputy from Jiangsu Province who is the Chairperson of Jiangsu Yueda Group Co. Ltd., a large state-owned enterprise established in 1979, with businesses in fields such as intelligent manufacturing, automotive and energy.  

Zhang said he believes that green and low-carbon concepts should run through the whole process, from product design, to procurement, production, transportation, storage, use and recycling. “The stakeholders of the manufacturing industry must minimize environmental pollution throughout the entire life cycle of the products,” Zhang told Beijing Review. 

He took new energy vehicles as an example. “The use of them is environmentally friendly, indeed. But if the recycling of used batteries is ignored, they will cause serious pollution to the environment during the waste disposal process. As a result, it is not really a green product from the perspective of the whole life cycle,” he said. 

According to Zhang’s observations and investigation, many upstream supplies fail to provide environmentally friendly raw materials for manufacturers. Given that, he suggested stricter industrial standards and regulations should be in place for upstream suppliers that provide raw materials; then manufacturers can follow these standards to purchase green materials for production. 

In 2022, the output of China's manufacturing industry ranked first globally for the 13th consecutive year, accounting for 27.7 percent of its GDP, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. In early March, the ministry announced it will accelerate the formulation of guidance on accelerating the green development of the manufacturing industry, with more targeted measures for different fields and trades. 

Copyedited by G.P. Wilson 

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