Forum explores new paths for smart industry development

Researchers, executives and government officials gathered to brainstorm on new ways to achieve high-quality development of the smart industry at a forum in Shenzhen today, as technology is fundamentally changing value chains and production methods across the globe. 

The Forum on High-Quality Development of Smart Industry, held under the guidance of the Shenzhen's market supervision bureau and the Futian District Government, focused on how to accurately understand the smart industry, how to achieve high-quality development of the smart industry, and how to integrate the smart industry with regional industries. 

In recent years, an array of new and emerging technologies such as big data, robotics, machine learning, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and 3D printing have led to the rapid emergence of the smart industry, which has gradually become a key driving force for China's economic and industrial development. 

A roundtable session at the Forum on High-Quality Development of Smart Industry, which takes place in Shenzhen today. Courtesy of the organizers

Liu Qing, deputy director of Futian District's science and technology innovation bureau, said in his keynote speech that the district has made fruitful explorations in the development of the smart industry in recent years and has won several national awards for that. "We expect the forum to provide professional support for the further development of Futian's smart industry, and chart a new path for the green, innovation-led development of Shenzhen and Hong Kong.

"The emergence of a new generation of information technology and artificial intelligence is speeding up the industrial upgrading," said Li Zibin, president of the China Association of Small and Medium Enterprises, former deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, and former mayor of Shenzhen. "Regarded as a perfect combination of technology and industry, the smart industry takes the industrial Internet as its basis and platform, digital technology and artificial intelligence as its driving force. New and emerging technologies have greatly improve the industrial production efficiency, product quality, and market services, and the smart industry has thus become an important part of the nation's high-quality drive." 

Chai Tianyou, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and an expert in control theory and control engineering, also delivered a keynote speech at the forum. He explained that the new generation of information technology features three aspects: the artificial intelligence technology driven by big data, the industrial internet driven by mobile internet, and the industrial meta-universe technology. The industrial meta-universe technology provides a virtual reality technology that can be made exactly the same as the real one and enables immersive interaction between real and virtual systems, which together have the potential to bring a new industrial revolution, he said.

Liu Quan, deputy chief engineer of a research institute under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, said in his speech that the main scenario of industrial Internet innovation and application revolves around data, and how to mine data well in the future to better empower all aspects of intelligent manufacturing is a prominent issue. 

The forum also featured two roundtable sessions and witnessed the official launch of Shenzhen Gugol Wisdom Industrial Development Institute.