A robot created at Osaka University is displayed at conference in Beijing on November 23

(Beijing) – China's top leaders recently voiced their support for the robotics industry, but one expert says the country's companies involved in the field must improve their technologies and quality to become industry leaders.

China has put a priority on developing its robotics industry, President Xi Jinping said in a letter to a robotics conference on November 23.

The event, which is being organized by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and China Association for Science and Technology, is being held from November 23 to 25, and includes a forum, exhibition and contest for young people.

Premier Li Keqiang also sent a letter to the conference, writing that the robotics industry will be key to innovation-driven development. Li added that robotics will play an important role in the Made in China 2025 initiative, a plan published in May that aims to upgrade manufacturing capabilities over the next decade.

Li added that the government wants China to become the world's biggest market for robotics.

The country had around 1,000 companies in the field, but most of their products are low end and not as competitive as those from foreign companies, said Qu Daokui, president of Shenyang-based SIASUN Robot & Automation Co. Ltd. and a professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

He said Chinese firms have fallen behind foreign technologies that combine welding and multi-joints robots, which are key to industries such as auto manufacturing. Foreign companies have 90 percent of that market, he said.

This means boosting technological capabilities and quality will be important if China is to make progress in the field, Qu said.

Despite this, China has great potential in robotics, Qu said. It has a lower ratio of robots to workers employed in manufacturing – 36 per 10,000 – than developed economies do, he said, citing data from the International Federation of Robotics (IFR). The ratio in South Korea is 478 and that in the United States is 162, he added.

Some 230,000 robots were sold around the world last year, 15 percent more than in 2013, the IFR said. A total of 57,000 units were sold in China, up 56 percent.

The federation estimates that the government's drive to get robotics more heavily involved in manufacturing will see sales increase by double digits every year, so that by 2018 some 150,000 units are sold in the country.

Miao Wei, the minister of industry and information technology, said in March that the government will work to develop five industry leaders in the sector by 2020.

(Rewritten by Guo Kai)