Opinion

Building Agriculture into a Modern Pillar Sector

Agriculture is a foundational industry vital to the national economy and people’s livelihoods. The Recommendations of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China for Formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development call for turning agriculture into a modern pillar sector. This reflects an accurate assessment of the current state of agricultural development and provides directional guidance for accelerating agricultural modernization in the coming period.

The "15th Five-Year Plan" period presents rare development opportunities for agriculture. Experts believe that as urban-rural integration deepens, agriculture is developing more functions and its industrial scope is becoming significantly richer and more diversified. With the advancement of technological revolution, modern information technology, biotechnology, and other innovations accelerating their application in agriculture, traditional agriculture is undergoing rapid transformation and upgrading, and the agricultural industry is being redefined, promising a new outlook for agriculture. The conditions are now more favorable, and the timing is ripe for building agriculture into a modern pillar sector.

Policy

1. 15 enterprises have been selected for the cultivation list of pioneer-level smart factories, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) announced on Nov. 27. This marks a critical leap in China’s intelligent manufacturing, transitioning from digitalization and network connectivity to intelligentization.

2. The People’s Bank of China and two other departments recently jointly issued the measures for customer due diligence and the preservation of customer identity information and transaction records by financial institutions, which will take effect on Jan. 1, 2026. Under the new regulation, individuals depositing or withdrawing cash exceeding 50,000 yuan will no longer need to register.

3. China on Dec. 2 launched a medicine price registration system, providing price registration and inquiry services for global pharmaceutical companies both online and offline. The move will help Chinese new medicines entering international markets, and also attract more premium international drugs to the Chinese market.

Data

1. China is advancing comprehensive intellectual property protection across the entire chain. The average review period for invention patents has been reduced to 15 months, and the average examination period for trademark registration has been stabilized at four months, both among the fastest globally, according to the National Intellectual Property Administration.

2. Beijing’s core AI industry scale reached RMB 215.22 billion in the first half of this year, with a year-on-year increase of 25.3 percent, according to a white paper on the 2025 artificial intelligence industry in Beijing released on Nov. 29.

3. China’s rural industrial revitalization has maintained sound development momentum this year. Agro-processing has achieved steady progress from January to October, with the added value of agriculture and related industries increasing by 6.3 percent year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

4. China’s New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor had transported a cumulative total of 5.003 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of cargo as of Nov. 29, and cargo volume along the corridor this year had reached 1.31 million TEUs, surging 55.3 percent year-on-year, according to China Railway Nanning Group.

5. China’s factory activity improved slightly in November. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that China’s official purchasing managers’ index for the manufacturing sector stood at 49.2 in November, up from 49 in October.

6. Assets under the management of China’s public offering funds reached RMB 36.96 trillion as of the end of October, the Asset Management Association of China said.

7. Since the adjustment to offshore duty-free policy in Hainan on Nov. 1, the duty-free shopping has totaled RMB 2.38 billion, a year-on-year increase of 27.1 percent, and the number of shoppers reached 329,000, purchasing a total of 1.905 million items, according to data released by Haikou Customs on Dec. 1.

8. The Ningbo-Zhoushan Port had handled 40 million twenty-foot equivalent units as of Dec. 2, marking the port’s first time surpassing the 40 million TEU annual container throughput milestone.

9. The China-Laos Railway has handled over 62.5 million passenger trips and more than 72.5 million tonnes of cargo as of Dec. 2. Since its launch four years ago, it has been playing a stronger role as a golden channel boosting regional development.

10. China’s average life expectancy reached 79 years in 2024, according to China’s 2024 health statistics bulletin released on Dec. 2 by the National Health Commission.

(Source: Economic Daily)