Science and Technology Daily:

Now more and more enterprises have realized the importance of digital transformation, and they are also accelerating the pace of digital transformation. We know that last year the MIIT focused on accelerating the digital transformation of China's manufacturing industry. I would like to know, as the industry's competent authority, how effective were the efforts in this regard? Secondly, what measures will the ministry take in the next step to support the digital transformation of enterprises? Thanks!

Tian Yulong:

Thanks for your question. As you said, the digital transformation is mainly about the popularization and application of the new generation of information technology, which will bring profound changes to production modes, development models, and enterprise forms in the manufacturing industry. It should be a compulsory course for enterprises to improve and develop their competitiveness. In recent years, thanks to joint efforts of the MIIT, relevant departments, and local governments, the digital transformation of China's manufacturing industry has seen accelerated development and good trends in innovation activities. It can be embodied in the following three aspects:

First, the foundation of the digital transformation has been consolidated. Through the implementation of the industrial internet innovation and development projects, more than 150 comparatively large-scale industrial internet platforms have been incubated, serving more than 1.6 million industrial enterprises, which provided strong support for digital transformation. Second, the scope of the digital transformation has been expanded. The new generation of information technology, including 5G, big data, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence, has accelerated integration and penetration with the manufacturing industry. Especially in industrial sectors like steel, automobiles, equipment, electronics, and petrochemicals, integrated and cross-industry innovations have been deepened. More than 2,000 "5G + Industrial Internet" projects are under construction across the country. Third, the degree of digital transformation has been enhanced. Just now, Mr. Xiao mentioned that the numerical control rate of key processes reached 55.3% among industrial enterprises above designated size, and the popularizing rate of digital R&D tools reached 74.7%. New forms and models of digital businesses also developed and innovated. The proportion of enterprises engaged in internet-based collaboration and service-oriented manufacturing reached 38.8% and 29.6%, respectively. Through internet-based and digital-driven transformation, enterprises not only improved their quality, efficiency, and effectiveness, but also gained benefits and improved their industrial competitiveness.

Next, we will continue our previous work and mainly focus on the following three aspects.

First, we will highlight key points and enhance enterprises' digital capabilities. Enterprises are the main body of digital transformation and reconstruction. At present, the digital capabilities of enterprises are generally not strong enough, which requires us to further promote and support them. We will summarize and promote a number of good technologies and practices, and issue relevant guidelines and guidance by industry and field. We will cultivate a group of high-quality system solution suppliers to provide practical and effective typical cases and methods for enterprises. Meanwhile, leading enterprises in the industry are supported to build digital empowerment platforms for the development of SMEs, and combine the optimization of industrial and supply chains, playing the role of digital transformation. By the end of this year, we will work with relevant parties to provide digital transformation services for at least 100,000 SMEs, and enable them to operate businesses on cloud platforms.

Second, we will expand applications and enrich product supply. We will continue to implement industrial internet innovation and development action plans, explore a number of typical application scenarios of "5G + Industrial Internet," and build a batch of fully 5G-connected factories. We will also accelerate the access of the industrial internet platforms to bases, industrial parks, and industrial clusters so as to connect various industries and empower enterprises and industrial parks.

Third, we will build and optimize the environment for digital transformation, which is a very important foundation for digital transformation. The standard system of transformation should be further improved. We will improve the talent training system for manufacturing transformation and further deepen the integration of industry and education and school-enterprise cooperation. At the same time, we will work with financial institutions to enrich financial products for digital transformation so as to further reduce the cost of enterprises' digital transformation. It is important to strengthen data security in digital transformation. We will actively foster the data factor market and support the establishment of data exchanges in Beijing and Shanghai. We will also strengthen industry data security supervision and formulate data catalogs to strengthen protection.

That's my answer. Thank you.