Xinhua News Agency, London, February 22nd, Interview: Accelerating Innovation and Opening, Hedging the Impact of the Epidemic on the Supply Chain——Interview with Fu Xiaolan, Director of the Technology and Management Development Research Center of Oxford University

Xinhua News Agency reporter Yu Jiaxin Gu Zhenqiu

Fu Xiaolan, director of Oxford University ’s Technology and Management Development Research Center, said in a written interview with a reporter from Xinhua News Agency that the new crown pneumonia epidemic will have a certain impact on the global value chain, but it will also objectively bring China's position in the global value chain Some opportunities.

Fu Xiaolan said that affected by the epidemic, some companies stopped production and stopped work, and some countries and regions imposed restrictions on the movement of people, which indeed affected the global operations of some multinational companies and may be transmitted to the upstream and downstream of manufacturing through the global value chain. Link. However, she pointed out that the division of global value chains has been changing, driven by factors such as the development of new technological revolutions and the pursuit of manufacturing returns in Europe and the United States. For example, in the global value chain, China has gradually shifted from labor-intensive industries to important intermediate product production and high-tech manufacturing product assembly.

At present, China is orderly promoting resumption of work and production. Fu Xiaolan commented that this will not only help China's stable economic growth, ensure the continuity of people's lives and China's foreign economic and trade cooperation, but also have important significance for ensuring the normal operation of local and global supply chains and the stability of international markets.

The epidemic will affect the supply chain to some extent, but it also contains certain opportunities.

"The epidemic objectively helps to promote the development of service-oriented manufacturing in China." Fu Xiaolan analyzed that after the outbreak, compared with the enterprises focusing on traditional management, the industrial Internet system based on digitalization, networking and intelligence will make manufacturing Industry operations are more flexible, lower cost, and more effective in responding to emergencies.

She believes that after the outbreak, industrial Internet, artificial intelligence, industrial and civilian robots, 5G-related technology applications, and medical and health industries may achieve new breakthroughs.

Fu Xiaolan said that the epidemic will objectively promote the transformation towards value chain upgrading and innovation, and enhance China's right to speak in the reconstruction of global value chains. In addition, we should also strengthen the community of shared destiny in the Asian industry chain, and promote Asia-Europe industrial chain cooperation through the "Belt and Road" initiative.

How can foreign capital be "brought in" and "retained"? Fu Xiaolan believes that in the short term, it is necessary to pay attention to the resumption of production and production of enterprises, but in the long run, it is necessary to build a first-class business environment with internationalization, rule of law, and convenience, and actively participate in global institutional competition, thereby further enhancing the confidence of multinational companies to continue investing.