Recently, the Action Plan for Science and Technology to Boost the Transformation and Development of Western China (2013-2020) jointly issued by the National Development and Reform Commission and the Chinese Academy of Sciences was announced. The plan proposes to focus on the technological needs of economic and social development in the western region, steadily enhance the basic capabilities of science and education, and support the construction and development of various key laboratories, engineering laboratories, engineering research centers, and enterprise technology centers. Promote research institutes and universities to open up scientific and educational resources, strengthen the sharing of major scientific facilities, research instruments, literature information, field stations and other scientific research infrastructure.
　　
The plan proposes to focus on supporting the construction of 40 technology transfer and transformation platforms and implementing 1000 technology transfer and transformation projects around the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries in the western region by 2015. By 2020, several influential innovation industry clusters and technology research and development bases will be established in the western region, cultivating a group of military enterprises that master core key technologies, have independent brands, and have significant influence in the industry.
　　
The Plan proposes seven key projects, including focusing on key equipment such as large hydropower, large boilers, air energy storage, CNC machine tools, instruments and meters, and optoelectronic processing in industries such as energy equipment, petrochemicals, and engineering machinery. Key technologies such as evaporative cooling, supercritical circulating fluidized bed, information perception transmission and modeling simulation, and laser processing will be broken through to strengthen system integration and improve the production level and efficiency of equipment manufacturing industry.
　　
The development of instruments and meters in the western region has been going on for many years, but there are still problems such as imbalance, lack of coordination, and unsustainability in the overall market development. It is urgent to accelerate the upgrading of industrial structure and achieve economic and social transformation and development. The announcement of this plan may provide a positive path for the development of the instrumentation industry in the western region.