According to the 2015 Asian Economic Integration report released on Tuesday by Asian Development Bank (ADB), China has ended Japan's prominence in exporting Asia's high-technology.

As per Bloomberg, ADB announced that China's share of Asia's export of high-tech products such as medical instruments, aircraft and telecommunications equipment went up by 43.7% in 2014, from 9.4% in 2000. At the same time, Japan's market share dropped off from 25.5 percent in 2000 to 7.7 percent last year. Malaysia and Philippines are among the Southeast Asian nation which likewise lost market share.

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China's focus on improving innovation and technology is at the core of its economy as it aims for growth in the manufacturing value chain. Low-tech goods accounted for 28% of China's exports in 2014, compared with 41% in 2000.

Frederic Neumann, the co-head of Asian economic research at HSBC Holdings Plc in Hong Kong said: "China has made inroads in taking more and more hi-tech manufacturing onshore even as a lot of critical components are still imported from other countries" He also added: "It's becoming highly competitive, with highly skilled labour and we're seeing increasing research and development moving into China."

As stated in an email by ADB chief economist Shang-Jin Wei, drones, smartphones and high- speed trains are getting competitive around the globe and the range of industries in the high-tech production industry has tripled to almost 30,000 from less than 10,000 in 2000.

"We are seeing some signs of success in some industries," he said. "But China is still not a global technology leader like the United States or Germany. What we are seeing is that China is catching up very fast on the 'standard technology' products and is beginning to do some innovations of its own."

Additionally, China dominates in exports of low-tech products including cloth, food and beverages, lumber, pulp and paper products. It had a 55.4% market share in 2014, followed by India with 9.4%. Asia's intraregional gross exports have increased about 3.6 times from 2000 to 2011, ADB said. 

TagsAsian Economic Integration, high-technology, Asia's export, Malaysia, southeast asia, Asian economic research, Frederic Neumann, HSBC Holdings Plc, Shang-Jin Wei, economist, drones, standard technology, low-tech products, China Technology Exports