China's strategic sectors. Trends in health-related manufacturing

Abstract

This paper is a first attempt to understand how strategic the health industry is for the Chinese economy, with respect to other manufacturing sectors. We measure this by building a composite indicator able to monitor over time the contribution of the different manufacturing sectors to the overall economic performance of China. In particular we define the strategic significance of the different manufacturing sectors according to their ability to stimulate entrepreneurship, generate employment, generate capital accumulation, meet market demand, generate profits, and produce fiscal revenues. Results suggest a good and stable contribution of the health-industry filiere to the Chinese economy. They also point to a relevant and increasing contribution of specific sub-sectors, including traditional Chinese medicine and proprietary Chinese medicine.