From Manufacturing.com
China is making moves to modernize its manufacturing industry, but in incentivising local manufacturers with generous subsidies, corrupt businessmen are coming out of the woodwork for easy cash-grabs.
Earlier this year, China released its “Made in China 2025” (MiC2025) economic policy, modeled after Germany’s “Industry 4.0” plan. The policy lays out incentives for domestic manufacturers to create and utilize intelligent and advanced manufacturing technology in an effort to keep up with Western advancement, based on a quality over quantity philosophy.
In 2015 alone, manufacturers in the Chinese mainland purchased 66,000 industrial robots, according to the International Federation of Robotics. That’s a 16-percent increase from 2014.
Chinese regulators are hoping to inject more money into the robotics industry under a proposed five-year plan, according to the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
“It has been an open secret within the industry that many Chinese robotics firms, including some companies that are listed, have cheated to obtain subsidies,” Wang Cairong, executive director at the China Artificial Intelligence Robot Industry Alliance was quoted as saying to the SCMP.
“Some have even formed several new companies to apply for and receive one-off subsidies,” Cairong continued. “It’s time to launch a nation-wide campaign to investigate these companies which have received subsidies through deceit or illicit connections.”
Corruption in China’s Robotics Industry
Even before the MiC2025 policy was published, many city- and provincial-level governments saw it coming and began releasing subsidies as well as tax deductions for the benefit of robotics developers, servicers and integrators.
