The coastal city of Qingdao in East China's Shandong province has been ramping up efforts to expand the scale of its industrial internet sector, by accelerating the in-depth integration of the digital economy and the real economy.

The industrial internet is the application and development of new-generation information in the industrial sector that provides a viable path for the digital transformation of industries, according to industry insiders.

Haier COSMOPlat, which is designed for companies to customize products quickly by collecting and analyzing data from consumers, suppliers and factories, while boosting productivity and cutting costs. [Photo/Qingdao News]

As early as 2015, Qingdao took the lead in the layout of the industrial internet, introduced an industrial internet development plan and held the World Industrial Internet Conference. Since 2020, the city has undertaken the goal of transforming itself into the world's industrial internet capital.

In October 2022, Shandong issued a plan to support Qingdao in this endeavor.

In the Shandong Peninsula Industrial Internet Demonstration Zone Construction Plan (2022-25), it proposed that based on the good industrial foundations of Qingdao, the city would build a world industrial internet capital.

This would be particularly done in the areas of industrial supply chains,  innovation chains, talent chains and capital chains and it would be actioned by deepening the construction of new infrastructure such as 5G, artificial intelligence and data centers.

Things get busy at Qingdao's fully automated port. [Photo/Qingdao News]

Qingdao has built industrial internet platforms for a number of vertical industries such as equipment, machinery, automobiles and energy. That's so as to promote the digital transformation of the manufacturing sector, as digitalization will facilitate the city's manufacturing branding and the establishment of a modern industrial system.

Furthermore, cross-industry and cross-field industrial internet platforms have also been implemented in the city.