LED Lighting Strategy: Breaking Out of National Borders with a Global Vision

　　The "Opinions on the Development of the Semiconductor Lighting Energy-Saving Industry" jointly issued by six ministries including the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Science and Technology set out clear goals: by 2015, the average annual growth rate of the output value of the semiconductor lighting energy-saving industry should be around 30%; functional lighting should reach around 20%; the independent innovation capability of enterprises should be significantly enhanced, and the number and performance of large-scale enterprises within the LED lighting industry should be notably improved. The LED lighting industry has encouraging development prospects. Due to the energy-saving advantages of LED lighting products and under the protection of a series of policies, its market demand is huge. With the comprehensive promotion of a low-carbon economy, green lighting has received great attention from the Chinese government.

　　Overall, the development of China's LED lighting industry has reached a scale level, with relatively mature development of key technological products and significant improvements in product quality and reliability. However, with the rapid development of the domestic LED lighting industry, three major problems cannot be ignored: first, overheating of the LED lighting industry; second, uneven quality of LED lighting products; third, certain deviations in the R&D and promotion of LED lighting products.

　　Although domestic LED industry investment and capacity expansion continue to accelerate, with more than 3,000 LED lighting manufacturers, 70% of them are concentrated in downstream integrated application links, lacking upstream core technologies. Moreover, due to the generally small scale of enterprises and the lack of standards, product quality is uneven. Compared with foreign companies, domestic LED lighting enterprises still have significant gaps in many aspects. How to effectively enhance the core competitiveness of domestic LED lighting enterprises so that they can actively participate in global competition is an issue that urgently needs to be considered.

　　LED street lights are the iconic product of LED lighting. The technological content of these products signifies the advancement and core competitiveness of LED lighting products, while their international leadership signifies the discourse power in emerging industry fields and the market share in future international and domestic markets.

　　In recent years, government plans such as Japan's "21st Century Light Plan," the U.S. "Next Generation Lighting Plan," the EU "Rainbow Plan," and Korea's "GaN Semiconductor Lighting Plan" have been launched one after another. Facing the huge temptation of the LED lighting market, the world's three traditional lighting industry giants—Philips, GE, and Osram—have also cooperated with semiconductor companies to establish semiconductor lighting enterprises, competing to invest in the R&D of LED lighting products. China is also unwilling to lag behind and has continuously improved the development of the LED lighting industry chain in recent years, forming several major industry chain concentration areas such as the Pearl River Delta.

(Editor: zl)