Qingdao strives to be a world-leading hub for the industrial Internet

Qingdao set a new goal for urban development in early 2020 with the aim of developing into a world-leading hub for the industrial Internet. Thanks to all-round efforts made last year, the city has seen remarkable changes and outcomes in the development of the industrial Internet, and an integrated ecosystem is quickly taking shape.

Revolving around the goal, the city government announced a master plan along with an implementation plan last year for building new infrastructure, popularization of new modes, integrated development of new technologies and incubation of new industries, with emphasis on efforts to introduce diverse innovation platforms and leading enterprises. Guided by the opening-up policy, the city is seeking deep fusion with the global industrial system to promote the realization of the goal. Based on the demand for digitalization, the city has built 15,000 5G base stations, ranking first in the national evaluation of mobile networks.

Last year, enterprises in Qingdao expedited the application of Internet technology, laying a stronger “digital foundation” for the development of the industrial Internet. According to official figures, in 2020, the city’s digitalization of manufacturing facilities reached 53.4%, the popularization of digital R&D and design tools was 87.4% and the numerical control of key working procedures was 54.6%; enterprises’ actual operating costreduced by 27% on average, while the product R&D cycle was shortened by 26% on average. Following the increasing application of Internet technologies in industrial sectors, enterprises are keen to try various new technologies, counting on them to improve their competitiveness in such aspects as supply chains, manufacturing, marketing and services.

In 2020, Qingdao released 1,300 application scenarios in 63 sub-categories under 12 categories to give a holistic picture of the demand for advanced technologies that can “empower industrial development” in different sectors and fields. Of that, the demand for intelligent applications and intelligent software accounted for 40.5% and 18.7%. Moreover, the city has improved public service platforms relying on the industrial Internet application to make big data analysis of each enterprise’s demand and facilitate precise offline matching of supply and demand.

At the same time, the city has accelerated the construction of specialized and public service platforms since 2020 to better meet the demand from enterprises and enhance the role of data in value creation and allocation as an essential production factor. COSMOPlat, a global leading industrial Internet platform, has linked up with about 700,000 enterprises and served more than 60,000 enterprises.

In 2021, Qingdao will give full play to its first mover advantage in the field of the industrial Internet to continually propel fundamental changes in production modes and business forms in the manufacturing sector, aiming to transform itself from a “testing ground” to a “deep water zone” for the development of the industrial Internet.