In the first quarter of this year, the digital industry has reached a new level. Digital technologies represented by 5G and large-scale artificial intelligence models have developed rapidly. The business revenue of the digital industry in the first two months increased by 8.2% year-on-year. Recently, China Industry News learned the latest data from a press conference held by the State Council Information Office.

The electronic information manufacturing industry shows strong momentum

In the first quarter, the fixed asset investment of the computer, communication and other electronic equipment manufacturing industry above designated size increased by 10.5% year-on-year, 6.3 percentage points higher than the national fixed asset investment growth rate.

In recent years, under the strategic deployment of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China to accelerate the development of new quality productivity, as an important part of new quality productivity, the electronic information manufacturing industry and the software and information technology service industry have shown strong development momentum.

"In the first quarter, the added value of the computer, communication and other electronic equipment manufacturing industry above designated size increased by 11.5% year-on-year, 5 percentage points higher than the industrial added value growth rate in the same period; in the first two months, the software and information technology service industry achieved an income of 1.8965 trillion yuan, increasing by 9.9% year-on-year, maintaining a stable growth; the total profit of the software industry was 232.8 billion yuan, increasing by 10.7% year-on-year," said Xie Cun, director of the Information and Communication Development Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

In terms of electronic product consumption, the policy dividends of the expanded purchase subsidy continue to be released, effectively stimulating consumer demand. Driven by subsidy policies and AI terminals, Chinese consumers' enthusiasm for electronic products has increased, accelerating the production and sales of electronic equipment. In the first quarter, the output of electronic computer whole machines was 85.322 million units, increasing by 9.6% year-on-year; the total shipment of televisions reached 8.84 million units, increasing by 4.7% year-on-year, achieving positive growth for two consecutive quarters; in the first two months, the shipment of 5G mobile phones was 41.619 million units, increasing by 7.6% year-on-year, with domestic brand mobile phones accounting for 85% of the shipment.

In terms of industrial project construction, policies have worked in concert, and investment enthusiasm has been high. Various regions have seized the opportunity of the "two priorities" and "two new" policies to actively promote the construction of related projects. In Shanghai and Guangdong, a number of projects in the fields of integrated circuits and new displays have been steadily advancing. In the first quarter, the fixed asset investment of the computer, communication and other electronic equipment manufacturing industry above designated size increased by 10.5% year-on-year, 6.3 percentage points higher than the national fixed asset investment growth rate.

In terms of software ecosystem construction, the potential of open source has continued to be unleashed, and the empowerment of various industries has begun to show results. More than 10 provinces (municipalities) across the country have innovated support measures for open source, made full use of existing policy tools, and actively supported the incubation and commercialization of open source projects through technological transformation and upgrading, and the recommendation of innovative products. The OpenHarmony ecosystem has continued to expand, with more than 70 community co-construction units, and a series of products such as "MineHarmony", "ElectricHarmony", "MobileHarmony", and "PoliceHarmony" have been successively launched, with the number of devices carrying it exceeding 1 billion. The cumulative installation volume of the openEuler system has exceeded 10 million.

"Chinese open source models represented by DeepSeek have shone on the international stage, achieving full open source of advanced models, parameter weights, reasoning logic, and tool chains with a more open attitude, allowing developers to transform from 'consumers' to 'co-creators', effectively promoting technological equality and opening up a new situation in the commercialization of artificial intelligence," Xie Cun said.

Xie Cun said that in the next step, they will adhere to technology-driven and application-led approaches, continue to strengthen the supply of high-quality electronic information software and hardware, accelerate the formulation and release of a new round of action plans for stabilizing the growth of the electronic information manufacturing industry, persistently promote technological research and development in software and hardware, strengthen the publicity and promotion of typical application cases and pilot demonstration achievements in consumer electronics, and promote more APPs to be listed on the HarmonyOS application store to meet the diverse needs of the people and continuously improve user experience.

The information and communication industry develops steadily and orderly. 

Next, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) will earnestly implement the work arrangements in the Government Work Report, increase policy support and element guarantee, and make greater efforts in breadth, depth and intensity to promote high-quality development of the industry.

"Since the beginning of this year, the MIIT has adhered to the general principle of seeking progress while maintaining stability, and promoted the stable and orderly development of the information and communication industry. In the first quarter, the total volume of telecommunications services increased by 7.7% year-on-year, and the cumulative business revenue reached 446.9 billion yuan, laying a good foundation for the year's work," said Xie Cun.

The network foundation has been continuously strengthened. A total of 4.395 million 5G base stations have been built, achieving 5G coverage in all towns and a 90% coverage rate in administrative villages. On the basis of achieving "county-level gigabit optical network coverage", the pilot program for 10-gigabit optical network has been launched, with pilot deployments in 168 communities, factories and parks in 86 cities across the country. The radio frequencies of 2G, 3G and 4G systems have been reused for 5G systems, continuously improving the capacity and signal coverage of 5G networks. The number of standard racks in use in computing centers has exceeded 9 million.

The application empowerment has been continuously demonstrated. China has continuously expanded the popularization and application of 5G and other networks. In terms of individual users, the number of 5G mobile phone users has reached 1.068 billion, and the number of gigabit broadband users has reached 218 million. In the industrial field, there are over 18,500 national-level "5G + industrial internet" projects, and 700 high-level 5G factories have been selected. 5G applications have been integrated into 80 of the 97 major categories of the national economy, with a total of over 138,000 cases. In industries such as mining and ports, large-scale replication has been achieved, effectively assisting industrial enterprises in improving quality and reducing costs. In the fields of healthcare and education, full-process and full-scenario coverage has been achieved, effectively supporting efficient and convenient public services and balanced development.

Industrial innovation has been continuously deepened. China's share of 5G standard essential patents declared globally exceeds 42%, leading the world in technology and industrial strength. "In terms of 6G research and development, we have guided the establishment of the IMT-2030 (6G) Promotion Group to promote 6G innovation through joint efforts. We have released over 50 research results such as the 'Overall Vision and Potential Key Technologies of 6G', and organized tests and verifications of 6G key technologies such as integrated communication and sensing and wireless AI to accelerate technology maturity," said Xie Cun. At the same time, we have further deepened international exchanges and cooperation with the European Union, South Korea, India and other countries and regions in the field of 6G.

Openness to the outside world has been continuously expanded. In the first quarter, the MIIT issued pilot approval for 13 foreign-funded enterprises to operate value-added telecommunications services, encouraging foreign-funded enterprises to invest in and deeply engage in China. As of the end of March, there were over 2,400 foreign-funded telecommunications enterprises in China, an increase of 26.5% compared with the same period last year.

Xie Cun said that the MIIT will earnestly implement the work arrangements in the Government Work Report, increase policy support and element guarantee, and make greater efforts in breadth, depth and intensity to promote high-quality development of the industry.

We will work on expanding the breadth of network construction and application, continuously improving the coverage of 5G and gigabit optical networks, and systematically promoting the development of computing networks. We will deeply implement the upgraded version of the "5G + Industrial Internet" 512 Project and the three-year action plan for "Interconnection" of identification, conduct summary and evaluation of key cities in the "Sail" action for 5G applications, and continuously promote large-scale applications in typical industries and key fields. We will actively cultivate innovative applications in emerging fields such as marine industries and low-altitude equipment.

We will work on deepening the integration of scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation, mobilizing the strength of all parties including research institutions, universities, enterprises and users, accelerating 6G technology research and development, standard formulation, pilot verification and industrial implementation, and making breakthroughs in integrated technologies such as communication, perception, intelligence and computing. We will also proactively plan and cultivate application industrial ecosystems for 6G. We will make efforts to expand the opening-up of the telecommunications industry, orderly promote the pilot program for the opening up of the first batch of value-added telecommunications services, and study further expanding the scope of opening up in due course to attract more qualified foreign-funded enterprises to invest and operate in the telecommunications business in China.

Industrial Internet Empowers New Industrialization

At present, the industrial internet in China has achieved full coverage of 41 major industrial categories. Last year, the core industry scale exceeded 1.5 trillion yuan, driving economic growth of nearly 3.5 trillion yuan.

The industrial internet is the product of the deep integration of new-generation information and communication technologies with manufacturing. It is a key foundation for the deep integration of the real economy and the digital economy. The industrial internet has been included in the Government Work Report for eight consecutive years. How is the development of the industrial internet in China currently? What measures will be taken this year to empower the digital transformation of industries?

"Over the past few years, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, in collaboration with various departments, localities, and the industrial community, has deeply implemented the innovation and development project of the industrial internet, building an integrated network, identification, platform, data, and security system. This has enabled the industrial internet to grow from nothing to something and from small to large, with its systematic development leading the world," said Xie Cun in response to a reporter's question.

According to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the industrial internet in China has achieved full coverage of 41 major industrial categories. Last year, the core industry scale exceeded 1.5 trillion yuan, driving economic growth of nearly 3.5 trillion yuan, providing important support for promoting new industrialization and building a modern industrial system.

First, it has unblocked the information arteries. High-quality external networks cover over 97% of prefecture-level administrative regions across the country, providing high-speed, ubiquitous, cloud-network integrated, and intelligent agile digital channels for the industrial chain, supply chain, and innovation chain.

Second, it has activated the data meridians. An independent and controllable identification resolution system has been built, with the national top-level node operating stably. 383 secondary nodes have been launched, and the number of registered identifiers has exceeded 650 billion, serving over 500,000 enterprises. The National Industrial Internet Big Data Center has aggregated 1.4 billion industrial data records and initially constructed an industrial model corpus.

Third, it has provided an industrial brain. There are over 340 industrial internet platforms with certain influence, with over 100 million industrial devices connected to key platforms. A total of about 4 million enterprises have been cloudified and platformized across the country, providing more visual and refined innovative means for economic operation and government governance.

"Next, we will take the release of the scale application efficiency as the main line, accelerate the deep integration of the industrial internet and artificial intelligence, and provide more solid support for promoting the digital transformation of industries and accelerating the construction of a modern industrial system," said Xie Cun.

Xie Cun pointed out that it is necessary to accelerate the release of guiding opinions for promoting the high-quality development of the industrial internet, create an upgraded version of "5G + Industrial Internet", implement the three-year action plan for identification "throughout" and the high-quality action plan for industrial internet platforms, improve the basic system and market-oriented allocation mechanism for industrial data circulation, and deepen the classification and grading management of security.

"Systematically promote the technological research and development of key technologies for the industrial internet, upgrade infrastructure, accelerate the technological innovation and industrial promotion of industrial 5G chips, modules, and intelligent devices," said Xie Cun. "Orderly carry out the construction of industrial 5G independent private networks, build a new industrial network system, create the 2.0 version of the identification resolution system, and promote the integrated development of the industrial internet and artificial intelligence."

In addition, more attention will be paid to expanding scale applications. Implement the "Chain-Net Synergy" project, release application guidelines for key industries such as ships, petrochemicals, automobiles, and textiles, and select typical application cases and excellent solutions. Promote the construction of "5G + Industrial Internet" integration application pilot cities and 5G factories at a high level and high standards, and carry out the "Hundred Cities and Thousand Parks" campaign in depth to accelerate the entry of the industrial internet into parks, bases, and clusters.

Source: China Industry News Network