The State Council has officially issued the Guiding Opinions on Deepening the Development of Industrial Internet through "Internet + Advanced Manufacturing" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"). The document proposes enhancing the supply capacity of the industrial Internet industry, continuously improving the development level of China’s industrial Internet, further advancing the "Internet +" initiative, and fostering a sound pattern where the real economy and the Internet mutually reinforce and upgrade in tandem. It also puts forward a "three-step" goal for 2025, 2035, and the mid-21st century: by 2025, 3 to 5 internationally competitive industrial Internet platforms will be established, one million industrial APPs will be cultivated, and one million enterprises will migrate to the cloud. What impact will the release of these Opinions have on the industry?
Industrial Internet has become a key direction for the digital transformation of the manufacturing industry, and a new market that domestic and international manufacturing enterprises and IT giants are competing to enter. On November 27, the State Council officially issued the Guiding Opinions on Deepening the Development of Industrial Internet through "Internet + Advanced Manufacturing" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"), which clarifies the development goals, key tasks, and supporting measures for China’s industrial Internet.
According to the China E-Commerce Research Center’s analysis of the Opinions, the document states that China’s overall goal for developing industrial Internet is to build an industrial Internet ecosystem compatible with economic and social development, and proposes phased implementation targets:
By 2020: Support the construction of a number of cross-industry, cross-domain national-level platforms and enterprise-level platforms; cultivate more than 300,000 industrial APPs (industrial applications); and drive 300,000 enterprises to adopt industrial Internet platforms.
By 2025: Establish 3 to 5 internationally competitive industrial Internet platforms; cultivate one million industrial APPs; and achieve cloud migration for one million enterprises.
By 2035: Build world-leading industrial Internet network infrastructure and platforms, and form an internationally advanced technology and industrial system.
By the mid-21st century: The industrial Internet network infrastructure will fully support economic and social development; China’s industrial Internet innovation capabilities, technology and industrial systems, and integrated applications will all reach internationally advanced levels, with overall strength ranking among the world’s top tier.
The Opinions define seven key tasks for building and developing industrial Internet:
Consolidate the network foundation;
Build a platform system;
Strengthen industrial support;
Promote integrated applications;
Improve the ecosystem;
Enhance security protection capabilities;
Advance opening-up and cooperation.
Among these, network infrastructure will be a priority in industrial Internet construction. Han Xia, Director of the Information and Communication Administration of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, explained at the State Council’s regular policy briefing held on November 3 that industrial Internet consists of three major systems: network, platform, and security. Among them, the network is the foundation, enabling ubiquitous connectivity of all production factors and smooth flow of data.
The Opinions also propose six safeguard measures for industrial Internet development:
Establish and improve laws and regulations, expand the scope of equal market access for market entities, and implement inclusive and prudent supervision;
Create a sound market environment;
Increase fiscal and tax support, and strengthen the guiding role of fiscal funds;
Innovate financial service models and support increasing the proportion of direct financing;
Strengthen professional talent support and innovate talent utilization mechanisms;
Improve organizational implementation mechanisms to promote the coordinated advancement of industrial Internet and "Made in China 2025".
What impact will these Opinions have? Cao Lei, a pioneer of China’s industrial Internet, author of the best-selling book Internet +: Industrial Trends, and Director of the China E-Commerce Research Center, offered the following perspectives:
Perspective 1: Policy Support Positions Industrial Internet as the Next "Tipping Point" in the Internet Sector
The release of the Opinions will accelerate the development of China’s industrial Internet. Industrial Internet is of great benefit to accelerating the upgrading and transformation of China’s manufacturing industry and enhancing the strength of the industrial economy, while its own development also contains huge business opportunities. It is expected that by the end of the "13th Five-Year Plan" period (2016-2020), the market size of this industry will exceed one trillion yuan. The Opinions provide solid guarantees for the development of China’s industrial Internet.
Currently, the impact of industrial Internet on China’s manufacturing industry is escalating: industrial big data is hailed as the "oil" of the future, and industrial Internet is widely recognized as the next tipping point in the Internet sector. As a major industrial country, if China can leverage information technology such as the Internet to transform industrial processes, technologies, and quality, the effect of upgrading and transformation will be enormous—helping China evolve from an industrial power to a leading industrial nation. Supporting and boosting the development of industrial Internet enterprises is becoming a key entry point for information technology to drive the transformation and upgrading of traditional manufacturing and serve the real economy.
By systematically building three functional systems (network, platform, and security), industrial Internet creates a new type of network infrastructure for comprehensive connectivity of humans, machines, and things, and forms new business formats and application models for intelligent development. It serves as a crucial foundation for advancing the construction of a manufacturing power and a cyber power. As an application of emerging technologies in the industrial sector, industrial Internet enables new combinations of different production factors; its development will have an all-round impact on China’s real economy. Given that supply-side structural reform focuses primarily on the industrial raw materials sector, building industrial Internet platforms will comprehensively enhance the supply capacity and quality of China’s manufacturing industry. Meanwhile, supporting measures such as increasing the proportion of direct financing will facilitate the deleveraging process of the real economy.
Perspective 2: "Internet +" is an Innovative Engine Driving the Consolidation of Manufacturing Foundations
Manufacturing is the cornerstone of national development and the foundation of a strong nation. "Internet +" is an innovative engine driving the consolidation of manufacturing foundations. China’s manufacturing industry faces bottlenecks in its traditional development model, making innovation-driven transformation an urgent need. Focusing on "Internet +" to implement innovation-driven development, and leveraging new technologies such as the Internet of Things, cloud computing, and big data to accelerate manufacturing upgrading, will enable smart manufacturing, high-quality manufacturing, and networked manufacturing. This, in turn, will bring about far-reaching changes in production organization models, business models, industrial organization, and industrial systems.
"Internet +" is becoming a core driver of the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry. Currently, a manufacturing paradigm centered on "information" is taking shape, and the value of data and information in manufacturing systems is being increasingly tapped. The goal of research on strategies, paths, and support systems for transforming China’s manufacturing industry driven by information and network technologies is to build a manufacturing power—with the pathway being the deep integration of information and network technologies with the manufacturing industry.
