High-Tech
China’s High-Tech BOOM
GRAND SCALE China Railways is engaged in the task of building 1500 high-speed bullet train cars in the next three years, an endeavour the World Bank has described the as “the biggest single planned program of passenger rail investment there has ever been in one country”. This project is part of a central planning
project to roll out 13,000km of high-speed (faster than 350km/h) railway across the country. The bullet cars are being manufactured in a state-of-the-art factory complex on the outskirts of Changchun. Inside a factory 180m wide and 1.6km long, world-best robotics assemble train carriages elevated on air- cushioned hover lifts, reducing the need for roof- hanging cranes and freeing up workshop space. China Railways are also working on an
Australian project. The manufacture of 624 railway cars for 78 double-decker, eight-carriage Waratah trains to be delivered to Sydney’s Railcorp from 2010 to 2013. The A$3.8 billion contract to deliver the trains was seven times bigger than any previous train order the major private partner in the project, Downer EDI, had previously handled. Consequently, the ASX-listed firm tasked the manufacture of the carriage shells to China Railways – a company with proven capacity and top-of-the-line facilities. The China Railways story is indicative of the
broader state of affairs with China’s high-tech capabilities in the early 21st Century. Passenger vehicle manufacturing provides a
mere glimpse into the broader scope of China’s high-tech industries. The Chinese government has put “independent innovation” on its top national agenda and the long-term goal is for China to become a world-leader in the headline high-tech subsectors of biotechnology, nanotechnology and electro-optics.
HIGH-TECH VISION Growth in biotechnology, nanotechnology and electro-optics is in part due to the development of National High Tech Parks that began in 1988. China had 54 high-tech parks by the end of 2007, with 48,000 in park enterprises employing 6.5 million people. Biotechnology is one of China’s top five
172 Australia China: BEYOND TOMORROW
national Science and Technology (S&T) strate- gic development priorities, as designated by the Chinese government’s, ‘National Mid-to-Long Term S&T Development Plan’ (2006–2020). Today, modern biotechnology represents an US$8.8 billion industry size in China, while the traditional biotech industry has witnessed an astonishing US$44 billion of annual revenue – 2800 biotech firms or institutions employ a total of approximately 40,000 research professionals across China. The sophistication of China’s biotechnology
industry is such that it is becoming common for Chinese companies to license home- grown technology for application in external markets. Celulas Genetica, a biotech firm base in Panama City, has recently purchased a license from a Beijing-based biotech firm to develop and market a new organ regeneration treatment, which utilises proton-beam technology to destroy diseased organ tissue for regeneration using adult stem cells. AusBiotech, Australia’s
biotechnology industry organisation, is establishing strong links with China. In December 2010, AusBiotech supported
ABOVE & RIGHT: Waratah trains.
Photos courtesy of Railcorp NSW BELOW: The
Volkswagen Lavida Blue-e-motion was
developed entirely by Volkswagen Shanghai specifically for the Chinese market.
Car Advice
BOTTOM: Lenovo, once ranked last in our
‘Green Ranking,’ has shot up to first place, while Apple continues to scrape the bottom of the barrel. Well, if Lenovo can turn
things around, what’s stopping Apple from turning green?
GreenPeace USA
CHINA
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