1. The current engineering status of China: a major engineering country rather than a powerful engineering country
Generally speaking, it can be said with full certainty that our country is already a major engineering country. At present, our country almost simultaneously has the largest projects and the largest amount of projects in the world. For example, it has the largest number of construction sites, the largest amount of building area under construction and completed annually, and consumes the largest amount of building materials every year. Take steel and cement. For the two most important building materials, in 2004 we consumed 27% of the world's steel and more than 40% of the world's total cement. At the same time, my country is also the world's largest cement producer, with cement production ranking first in the world for 14 consecutive years. , the output in 2004 reached nearly 1 billion tons, accounting for nearly half of the global total. It is expected that future demand will account for more than half of the global total. In addition, in some specific engineering fields, we can also see our leading position in the world in terms of engineering volume. For example, among the more than 400,000 dams in the world today, our country has more than 86,000, ranking first in the world; Another example is tunnels and underground engineering. As civil engineering projects built by humans using underground space, they have developed rapidly in the past 20 years. As of 2003, my country has built nearly 10,000 tunnels in the fields of railways, highways, water conservancy and hydropower, with a total extension of 6,000. There are currently 300 kilometers added every year, and the scale and number of completed projects are among the best. Therefore, my country has become a veritable powerhouse in tunnels and underground engineering.
Overall, our projects under construction are not only large in number, but also many large-scale and long-term projects, including some major infrastructure construction projects, such as the West-to-East Gas Transmission, South-to-North Water Diversion, and the Three Gorges Project. Wait, it has attracted worldwide attention. It can be said that no country can have so many large-scale projects under construction at the same time as our country. Even our total number of engineering and technical personnel (10 million) and total number of engineers (2.1 million) ranks first in the world. From these aspects, it is clear that we are the country with the largest engineering volume in the world. In addition, judging from the status of engineering in the country, the funds currently used by the whole society for engineering construction account for about half of the GDP of that year, so engineering is also the largest proportion of economic activities. Although we are already the world's number one engineering power, we are not an engineering power. Although there is no unified indicator system to measure "32 Cheng Qiangguo", it at least reflects this situation from some important dimensions. For example, our largest project volume does not produce the greatest value or wealth, the benefits of the project are extremely disproportionate to the quantity of the project, and the amount of resources and labor we spend on the project is extremely disproportionate to the benefits. , this is very similar to the situation of many of our products. Although we have the largest production volume of these products in the world, due to their low prices, their sales share is far from the top in the world, so it can be said that we are this type of product is a major producer of products, but it is not a strong producer of such products.
What best represents a country’s engineering status should be its leading industries formed by its engineering. Our country’s dominant industries are still traditional industries. Although some of our products in traditional industries have reached It has achieved the world's leading or even first position, but its technology is far from the world's advanced level. The level of technical equipment in these industries is low, the equipment is outdated, the processes and technical means are backward, the product cost is high, the value-added rate and competitiveness are low, the low technical level in traditional industries will inevitably lead to low labor productivity. my country's labor productivity is only 1/40 of that of developed countries. It also produces 90 million tons of steel (in 1995, my country produced 94 million tons of steel, and the United States produced 93 million tons). The number of employees in the United States is 168,000, while that in my country is 3.8 million. The United States produces 1 billion tons of coal and employs 150,000 people; my country produces 1.3 billion tons of coal and employs 7 million people; the physical labor productivity of automobiles in my country is 1/60 that of Japan; the physical labor productivity of the textile, printing and dyeing industry is 1/10 that of the United States , 1/3 of Japan. Our leading industries are also characterized by high consumption and low output. We consume 31% of the world's raw coal, 7.4% of the oil, 27% of the steel, and more than 40% of the cement. We have only created 10% of the world's total. The production value is 4% of the production value.
Although there is some exaggeration and alarmism in it, the problems it implies cannot help but arouse our vigilance.
3． The quality level of projects is low
The quality of projects is also an important dimension to measure a country's engineering level. But as a major engineering and manufacturing country, our quality levels are worrying, most notably the constant exposure of “rotten projects” and the flooding of the market with “fake and shoddy” products. Poor engineering quality leads to short service life of corresponding products. For example, the service life of a screw manufactured by us is less than 1/10 of that in developed countries. This is obviously due to the low level of craftsmanship and technology. Therefore, the technical status of the project is Inevitably linked to quality, the quality of a small screw actually best reflects our manufacturing level and also reflects the quality of our construction and engineering. The poor quality of projects and their products can at least damage the material interests of consumers, or at worst endanger people's lives and property. There are many cases of bridges and buildings collapsing due to their quality. Extensive development is also reflected in the projects we build, and the quality of them is worrying. This current situation of engineering quality is not only related to our lack of innovation and technical levels, but also closely related to factors such as management and engineering corruption. In view of the situation of project quality, some experts have issued this appeal: In the past, we tended to pay more attention to whether the project was "done well", but now we should pay more attention to whether the project was "good" under the guidance of the Scientific Outlook on Development. We should have new project decision-making procedures and new project evaluation standards, and we should strive to "do good projects" well. The first sign of "good engineering" is obviously high-quality engineering, not inferior engineering. A country can be recognized as an engineering power only after a large number of high-quality and high-quality projects emerge.
4． The economic benefits of the project are low
The engineering power will benefit economically due to the high quality and advanced nature of its projects, forming a kind of "excellent asset" in the project, making the project and economic benefits "mutual benefit" "Mutual promotion" and positive interaction. Projects that lack innovation, technology and quality are often at a disadvantage in terms of economic benefits.
On the one hand, engineering activities that lack innovative and technical levels make it difficult to pursue economic benefits, because such projects or construction are either low-end products with extremely low added value, or low-level products. Repetition is copying without any new ideas. The result is that the supply of similar products exceeds demand in the market, causing new backlogs. It also causes a waste of resources, manpower and funds, and causes serious economic losses.
Engineering is construction, and low-tech construction, or construction without independent innovation, is often low-efficiency or even ineffective construction. For example, the price of a DVD exported from my country is US$32, the patent fee paid to foreigners is US$18, and the cost is US$13. Chinese companies can only earn US$1 in profit. A domestically produced MP3 player priced at US$79 requires foreign patent fees of US$45, and the manufacturing cost is US$32.50. The net profit earned by Chinese companies is only US$1.50. Although 65 million of the 80 million DVDs shipped worldwide each year are manufactured by us, and although we are the undisputed manufacturing power in this industry, our companies have not made much money. Relevant statistics show that in the second half of 2004, due to high patent fees and falling DVD prices, the number of DVD manufacturers in mainland China has dropped sharply from more than 500 at the peak to 100. On average, there are 100 DVD manufacturers every day collapse. The story of DVD vividly illustrates the development tragedy of an industry that cannot innovate independently and lacks core technology. What is even more helpless is that this tragedy is still happening in other industries."
On the other hand, due to the system, Due to reasons or concepts, some project decision-makers or managers lack awareness of economic costs and engage in performance projects, face-saving projects, short-term projects, projects to eliminate foreign products, etc. Such projects are denounced by the public as "rich official projects" that waste people and money. The projects do not take into account the benefits, especially the national and social benefits. The projects are just a means or carrier for individuals or small groups to make money.