Displaying items by tag: Ministry of Industry and Information Technology

The Chinese Government has released a five-year plan to develop intelligent manufacturing in a bid to increase the nation’s competitiveness.

The plan was released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology at the World Intelligent Manufacturing Summit in Nanjing on Wednesday.

According to a press release issued by Intelligent Manufacturing Summit the plan proposes a two-step strategy and ten key tasks for intelligent manufacturing.

Under the two-step strategy, by 2020 foundation and supporting capability for intelligent manufacturing will be enhanced significantly, and digital manufacturing for key areas of traditional manufacturing industry will be realized.

Then from 2020 to 2025, supporting systems for intelligent manufacturing will be established and preliminary intelligent transformation for key sectors will be realized.

The plan also calls for speeding up development in intelligent equipment and key common technologies, setting up intelligent manufacturing standards, expanding intelligent manufacturing trials, and promoting intelligent transformation in key sectors and small and medium-sized companies.

It also pledges coordinated development of regional intelligent manufacturing and nurturing talents and stresses that development of intelligent manufacturing is a long-term strategy.

Other key parts of the plan include enhancing the security controllable capability of key technology and equipment, beefing up supporting capability for bases, upgrading integrated application level, exploring new modes for cultivation and building beneficial development environment.

The move follows the Government’s May 2015 announcement of its "Made in China 2025" initiative designed to transform the country from a low-cost manufacturing giant to a high-tech manufacturing power.

That initiative focuses on 10 priority sectors, including advanced rail, aviation and aerospace, agricultural machinery and technology, and new generation information technology. It encourages domestic manufacturers to make technological breakthroughs in the emerging industries to shift towards more value-added production.

China an M2M leader

In June The GSMA and EY (Ernst & Young) both released reports into the Chinese machine to machine (M2M) market predicting enormous growth and citing strong government support as contributing significantly to China’s rapid take-up of M2M. The GSMA report, Mobile Operators and Digital Transformation, produced in conjunction with The China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), said the market would reach one billion connections by 2020, with the majority coming from the developing Low Power, Wide Area (LPWA) market.

“China is currently the world’s largest M2M market with approximately 100 million cellular M2M connections, a figure that is expected to increase to 350 million by 2020, the report said. “However, an additional 730 million connections will be enabled by LPWA technology, taking the total figure to just over one billion. By 2025, it is expected that 50 percent of the world’s 28 billion connected devices will be suitable for connection by LPWA networks.”

EY, in its report M2M in China: opportunities to build on global leadership said China was already the market leader in M2M. “Yet the market is still in the early stages, as M2M accounted for less than five percent of telcos’ service revenue in 2015.” However, EY added: “Benefiting from the Government’s proactive support and the sheer scale of the opportunity, the addressable market and the opportunity for further growth are immense.”

Almost 200 Chinese and non-Chinese organizations have bandied together under the auspices of the Electronic Information Division of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to form the Industry of Virtual Reality Alliance (IVRA.com), billed as “The only official, government-endorsed VR organization in China.”

They IVRA’s stated aim is to “enhance the development of the VR ecosystem in China by promoting technology innovation and the formulation of industrial standards, bridging hardware, software, content, platforms and industrial applications.”

In a press release announcing its formation, IVRA said the establishment of the IVRA was in line with the country's VR and innovation-driven development strategy. “China's VR industry is entering a defining period in 2016. In May, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued the National Innovation-driven Development Strategy Outline, highlighting the need to develop a new generation information network technologies, enhance VR technology research and industrial development, strengthen the IT Infrastructure for economic and social development, promote the innovation of industrial technology system, and form new development advantages.”

According to its web site, the IVRA has made possible through the efforts of China Center for Information Industry Development, the state laboratory of virtual reality technology and systems at Beihang University, HTC, GoerTek and Wisesoft and is “dedicated to providing solutions to the VR industry's key unsolved questions, such as the ecosystem priorities, industry standardization, industrial chain agreements, transference of technology results, and the critical support of innovation.” It also serves to advise governmental institutes in directing further developments in the next three to five years.

Alvin W Graylin, china regional president of HTC’s VR initiative, Vive and vice chairman of IVRA, said the organization hoped to promote the spirit of cooperation and integration between all parts of the ecosystem in order to accelerate the maturing of the VR industry as a whole.

“We want to bring revolutionary improvements to people's lives in China and globally by working together as one industry to bring to market products and content which deliver real value to consumers and business customers."

HTC claims to be “a pioneer of VR technological innovation [that] has placed the development of the VR ecosystem at the forefront of its business.”  In April HTC launched Vive X Accelerator (vivex.co) to provide tools and professional guidance for VR developers and startups. It has also collaborated with 37 venture capital firms from around the world to set up the VR Venture Capital Alliance (VRVCA.com), with the aim of getting billions invested into the global VR industry.

Vive is billed as “a first-of-its-kind virtual reality system.” It has been developed by HTC and Valve. “Designed from the ground up for room-scale VR, Vive allows true-to-life interactions and experiences thanks to an adjustable headset displaying stunning graphics, two wireless controllers with HD haptic feedback and 360˚ absolute motion tracking,” HTC says.

China is to get a fourth national telco, China Broadcasting Network Ltd (CBN). China Daily reported on 5 May that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology had issued CBN with a telecoms license permitting the company to operate internet domestic data transmission business and domestic telecommunication infrastructure service businesses. The license also extends to CBN subsidiary, China Cable Television Network Co Ltd.

China Daily said the aim was to promote the nation's progress in Three-Network Convergence, which aims to combine cable television, telecommunications and the internet into one seamless chain, and promote competition in the market.

The Three-Network Convergence project was announced by China's State Council in September 2015. China Daily said at the time that it was “a nationwide project to deliver telecom, radio, television and Internet services over a single broadband connection.”

It quoted the announcement saying: "The project can help upgrade consumption, overhaul industrial structure and improve people's livelihood.” Under the plan radio and television stations are to be allowed to operate phone call and Internet services and telecom companies to make radio and television programs, except for political news. China Daily said the plan would be implemented gradually.

CBN was established in 2014 with registered capital of 4.5 billion Yuan ($691.16m).