Hefei is home to China Speech Valley. [Photo/WeChat account: hefeigaoxinfabu]

The program for building a national intelligent speech innovation center in Hefei, capital of East China's Anhui province, passed expert review on Oct 13.

The experts agreed that the center will be helpful in integrating upstream and downstream innovation resources in the industrial chain, as well as in making technological breakthroughs, giving a boost to the development of the intelligent speech industry.

Led by iFlytek, the center will be built by 10 companies, including Anhui Information Investment, Cambricon, and Leinao. It will be operated with the support of China’s speech industry alliance.

The intelligent speech industry is among the first fields for construction in the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's overall plan for building national manufacturing innovation centers.

The center will focus on key multilingual speech technologies, AI chips, and industrial acoustics, as well as carry out research on key common technologies in the field of intelligent speech.

Liu Qingfeng, president of iFlytek, said that the center will serve as a platform in building an open ecosystem with a commitment to technological innovation-driven growth, which will allow more partners to do cooperative research and work together to advance the intelligent speech industry.