People experience cutting-edge 5G automobile applications at the 2021 China 5G+Industrial Internet Conference. [Photo/Optics Valley of China]

Experts, academicians and industrial heavyweights were invited to share their views on the industrial internet on Nov 20 at the 2021 China 5G+Industrial Internet Conference, which was held at the East Lake High-tech Development Zone (also known as Optics Valley of China, or OVC).

"5G+industrial internet is a new historical opportunity for traditional industries to achieve rapid development. Given that China is ahead of the game in the deployment of 5G, and that it has a wide range of industrial scenarios to apply, the country's industrial internet entered a stage where there are many challenges to overcome," said Wu Hequan, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

Wu Hequan delivers a keynote speech at the conference. [Photo/Changjiang Daily]

He said he believes that the industrial internet serves three functions – accumulating data from production lines and upstream and downstream enterprises, developing statistical models based on the operational system of industrial internet platforms, and offering assistance in decision making and business management based on results generated by the statistical model.

More than 1.29 million 5G base stations have already been established domestically, and 20 typical 5G+industrial internet scenarios have been rendered applicable in 22 key economic sectors in China. Efforts now are being made to push more industrial internet platforms to include enterprises, industrial parks and clusters.

Yang Jie, president of China Mobile Communications Co, one of China's three telecommunications giants, predicted that by the end of 2022, the company will have fulfilled its goal of 5G network coverage among regions above town-level, and core confidential data will not be leaked outside industrial parks.

Li Zhengmao, general manager of China Telecom Group, predicted that by 2025, 90 percent of industrial applications will be shifted to the cloud, and 85 percent of enterprises will transfer their services and operations to the cloud.

Han Jun, general manager of China Three Gorges Corporation, highlighted clean energy and eco-friendly industries as the most important in the new era and pledged to become a leading practitioner and contributor to 5G+industrial internet.

High-ranking officials from YOFC, Dongfeng Motor, Huawei Technologies, and China Uniform also addressed the conference.