Commentary: China, Germany to jointly march towards next industrial revolution

China has brought its in-depth cooperation with Germany into a new era as it decides to let its "Internet Plus" action plan join hand with the European nation's "Industry 4.0" strategy.

Both nations have expressed strong willingness to deepen cooperation between "Internet plus" and "Industry 4.0" in a bid to fuel innovation, foster new economic growth points and promote common development.

As new manufacturing concepts with web-based networking, the "Internet Plus" and "Industry 4.0" strategies share the same goal of revolutionizing the traditional manufacturing industry as well as all the other fields of human society.

Seeking to ride the tide of information technology, China has made a visionary move to strengthen coordination with Germany in promoting the "Internet Plus" and "Industry 4.0" initiatives.

As this year's CeBIT has shown, almost all economic sectors in today's society find themselves increasingly intertwined with information technology (IT), which is expected to bring earthshaking changes just as electricity did in the past.

By integrating its manufacturing with IT, China will be able to upgrade itself from a manufacturer of quantity to one of quality.

The foundation for its cooperation with Germany will also be solid as the two countries can complement each other's advantages.

Meanwhile, both China and Germany have the advantages of an early start, which will enable them to play a leading role in developing "Industry 4.0" and exert a significant impact globally.

In a keynote speech in the trade fair, Jeremy Rifkin, an expert on the impact of scientific and technological changes on the economy, said both China's "Internet plus" and Germany's "Industry 4.0" have similar concepts. As initiators, China and Germany will become the double engines in the process of "Industry 4.0."

Moreover, with a huge market, China has its own advantages in developing the IT industry.

Experts interviewed by Xinhua said it is possible for China's manufacturing to take advantage of the digitalization to catch up with its international competitors.

"It's possible to skip some stages of development," said Christoph Meinel, head of Postdam-based Hasso Plattner Institute. "It's possible to even become a leader and come to the position to sell technologies also to other countries."

As a country with the biggest population in the world, China's biggest responsibility to the world's peace and development is to ensure its stability and growth.

By strengthening cooperation with Germany, China will find new growth engines for its economy and contribute to the growth and prosperity of the country and the world at large. Endi