Workers operate on a production line in the smart workshop of a special vehicle manufacturing company in Yangzhou, East China's Jiangsu Province, on April 22, 2026. Photo: VCG

China's top economic planner on Tuesday said that the next step in upgrading the services sector will focus on fostering leading industrial design firms to provide better support to manufacturing. A Chinese expert said that the role of services in supporting manufacturing has become increasingly prominent in recent years, with key gaps needing to be addressed as China's high-end manufacturing advances and demand upgrades.

Shen Zhulin, deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), made the remarks at a press conference, noting that efforts to expand capacity and improve quality will prioritize both producer and consumer services.

In terms of producer services, Shen stressed that we must bolster high-end "Made in China" with stronger "China Services".

Shen described industrial design as a "second core technology," but said that specialized firms remain small in scale and lack competitiveness, with limited support for manufacturing's move up the value chain.

The NDRC is willing to work with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to cultivate leading industrial design companies and build high-level platforms with Chinese characteristics and global standards, promoting the mutual reinforcement of Chinese design and manufacturing, Shen said.

Manufacturing competitiveness was previously seen as being driven mainly by equipment and hardware investment, but with the rise of information technology and artificial intelligence, services have become deeply embedded across the production process, playing a critical role in improving product quality and driving industrial upgrading, Bian Yongzu, executive deputy editor-in-chief of Modernization of Management magazine, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

"On the production side, as equipment becomes more high-end and intelligent, software systems, operating systems and related technical services have become essential to ensuring efficient operations. The widespread use of robots, for example, relies on advanced software control and system integration capabilities, which fall within the scope of high-end services," he said.

Bian noted that while China, as the world's largest industrialized nation, has built strong overall manufacturing capabilities, shortcomings remain in high-end services. Despite rapid progress in recent years, key links still need to be strengthened, which is vital for both high-quality manufacturing development and the security of industrial and supply chains. 

This year, China's policy agenda has placed greater emphasis on supporting the development of the services sector. Experts said that the sector has expanded steadily in recent years, creating broad opportunities for both domestic and foreign companies.

In this year's Government Work Report, delivered at the fourth session of the 14th National People's Congress in March, it was stipulated that "We will enhance the capacity and quality of the services sector" and "promote the development of producer services such as financial services, information technology, modern logistics, intellectual property services, and inspection and testing."

According to the Xinhua News Agency, it was the first time that the Chinese government mentioned enhancing the capacity and quality of the services sector. It was also the first time that cultivating the "China Services" brand was included in the Government Work Report.

In 2025, China's services sector delivered an impressive performance. Its value-added exceeded 80 trillion yuan ($11.70 trillion) for the first time, accounting for 57.7 percent of GDP, according to Xinhua. The sector's contribution to national economic growth also reached 61.4 percent, up 3.7 percentage points from 2024, maintaining a dominant position in the national economy for 11 consecutive years.

Also in 2025, services consumption accounted for 46.1 percent of the per capita consumption expenditure of urban and rural residents, according to Xinhua. The NDRC, the country's top economic planning agency, predicted that during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-30), the scale of the services sector would exceed 100 trillion yuan.