China has maintained its position as the world’s largest manufacturing hub for 12 straight years.

The Minister of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), Xiao Yaqing made this known while briefing newsmen on Monday.

He said that the value-added output of the manufacturing sector in 2021 increased to 9.8 per cent year-on-year to 31.4 trillion Yuan (about 4.97 trillion U.S. dollars), accounting for 27.4 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The minister said output of the high-tech manufacturing industry went up to 18.2 per cent year- on-year, equipment manufacturing increased to 12.9 per cent, while digitisation and green development of the sector also picked up.

“China now has more than 4,700 national-level `little giant’ firms, or small enterprises that are still in the early stage of development and focus on the new generations of information technology.

“Others are high-end equipment manufacturing, new energy, new materials, biomedicine and other high-end fields.

“In terms of 5G development, the country has built a total of 1.43 million 5G base stations by the end of 2021, the number of mobile terminals connected to the network exceeding 520 million,’’ he said.

Yaqing said that the ministry would further stimulate investment in the manufacturing sector, and encourage enterprises to level up their manufacturing technologies.

According to him, it will also speed up the establishment of 5G services and gigabit fiber-optic networks.