Preface Metrological instruments originally referred to precision equipment specifically used to measure the pressure, flow rate, and temperature of water, gas, electricity, and oil. This encompasses thousands of product varieties. In the latter two decades of the last century, with the rapid development of microelectronics and communication technologies, modern metrology, scientifically classified, includes three aspects: scientific metrology, legal metrology, and engineering metrology. The task of scientific metrology is to develop and establish basic metrological standards, ensuring the transfer and traceability of measurement values, and providing basic guarantees for legal metrology and engineering metrology. The task of legal metrology is to supervise the measurement of important measuring instruments and commodities related to national economy and people's livelihood by the government's metrological administrative departments in accordance with the law, ensuring the accuracy of relevant measurement values. The task of engineering metrology is to provide traceability of measurement values ​​for other measurement activities throughout society, and to provide metrological calibration and testing services. Based on this, we specifically divide it into geometric metrology, temperature metrology, mechanical metrology, electromagnetic metrology, optical metrology, acoustic metrology, electronic metrology, time and frequency metrology, ionizing radiation metrology, and chemical metrology. my country currently has over 6,000 metrology instrument enterprises, forming a relatively complete industrial system with a certain technological foundation and production scale, making it the second largest metrology instrument producer in Asia after Japan. Since the Ninth Five-Year Plan, the overall situation of my country's metrology instrument industry has been one of progress. Products have kept pace with international developments in miniaturization, integration, intelligence, and bus-based systems, resulting in a number of technologically advanced new products and the rise of a number of large-scale private enterprises, representing a new force in the development of my country's metrology instrument industry. However, it must be clearly recognized that although my country's metrology instrument industry has achieved certain development, it is far from meeting the ever-growing and urgent needs of national economic scientific research, national defense construction, and social life. The vast majority of my country's metrology instrument products are at a low to medium level of technology, and key indicators such as reliability and stability have not yet fully met requirements. High-end, large-scale instruments and equipment are almost entirely dependent on imports, and foreign companies also hold more than 60% of the domestic market share for mid-range products and many key components. These factors constrain the development of my country's metrology instrument industry. The development of metrology instruments in China is lagging behind, facing numerous problems and a severe situation. The main factors contributing to this lag are concentrated in the following four aspects: I. Slow Progress in Technological Innovation and Industrialization Modern metrology is a product of the high integration of optics, mechanics, electronics, computers, and many basic disciplines. It is highly sensitive to new technologies and is one of the fastest-growing categories in modern industry, with a batch of new products launched every year. Especially in today's information age, competition is increasingly fierce; even a slight slowdown in development will leave one far behind. Even now, in the 21st century, the general level of metrology instruments in China remains at the international level of the early 1980s. Large and high-end instruments and equipment are almost entirely dependent on imports, many urgently needed specialized instruments are still lacking, and there are still many challenges to overcome in ensuring the quality of low- and mid-range products. The slow progress in technological innovation and industrialization is a bottleneck restricting the development of China's metrology instrument industry. The main factors hindering this development are threefold: first, a severe shortage of research funding; second, a lack of talent; and third, a lack of effective integration among government, industry, academia, research, and application. II. Product stability and reliability have not been fundamentally resolved for a long time. Although the technical indicators of China's metrology products, including industrial automation instrument systems and communication instruments, are not far behind those of similar foreign products, their stability and reliability are not high. This greatly limits the scope of use and credibility of China's metrology products. The main reasons are threefold: (1) The research and development of basic technologies have been neglected for a long time. (2) The quality of domestic general-purpose parts and basic parts is not up to standard. (3) Enterprises have poor quality control and management of products, resulting in substandard product quality. III. The old system has constrained the development of enterprises. The old system is a common problem that restricts the development of China's economy, especially state-owned enterprises. The instrument industry is no exception. A considerable number of state-owned enterprises, due to the long-term constraints of the old system, have been unable to break free from the historical burden of the old system, have lost their vitality in market competition, and their production and operation have seriously declined. A large number of backbone enterprises are struggling on the brink of survival. Therefore, accelerating the reform of the system is one of the important ways to develop. IV. The development of the metrology instrument industry is constrained by the objective environment, which is mainly manifested in: (1) Excessive taxation. Enterprises producing metrological products are generally small in scale, with limited production volume and low total output value and economic benefits. However, modern metrological instruments have a huge driving effect on the national economy, generating immeasurable multiplier effects. For an industry with such special attributes, levying a 17% value-added tax, a 33% income tax, and the same proportion of customs duties as other industries would be too heavy a tax burden. (2) Governments at all levels, including the competent departments of the industry, as well as banks, tax authorities, and industrial and commercial departments, do not fully recognize the importance of developing the metrological product industry and do not provide sufficient support. (3) There is a lack of procurement policies to support the development of national industries. (4) my country's basic industrial capabilities are poor. Including product quality, service capabilities, and reputation capabilities, they are all poor, which directly affects the development of the industry. Countermeasures and suggestions for revitalizing my country's metrological instrument industry. In order to revitalize the development of the industry, the State Planning Commission, the State Economic and Trade Commission, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Finance, and other relevant departments should jointly formulate necessary support policies. Modern metrology integrates a variety of high-tech achievements. Developing modern metrology instruments requires a concentration of outstanding talent and substantial investment. Therefore, it necessitates a group of large, well-known companies with considerable economic strength to act as leading enterprises, driving the development of the entire industry. Simultaneously, it is crucial to expedite the reform of state-owned enterprises, injecting new vitality into their development. Because the instrument industry is generally small in scale and relatively short in history, its burdens are lighter, and its product structure is easier to adjust. Therefore, reform is relatively less difficult. It is recommended that the state accelerate the reform of state-owned enterprises and set clear requirements, which will have a positive impact on promoting the development of the metrology instrument industry.