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A humanoid robot walks at a 5G smart factory of Chinese automaker ZEEKR on August 5, 2024 in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang Province. Photo: VCG

A second batch of 400 high-level 5G factories for the year 2024 will be released, aiming to promote the development of 5G+ industrial internet in key industries such as steel, equipment, electronics, mining and ports, Zhang Yunming, a vice minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), said on Tuesday.

"The industrial internet has become the most active field of 5G application and innovation," said Zhang, as quoted by the China Securities Journal. Zhang made the remarks at the 2024 China 5G + Industrial Internet Conference, which kicked off on Tuesday in Wuhan, Central China's Hubei Province.

Zhang said that the number of 5G+ industrial internet projects has exceeded 15,000 in China, achieving full coverage across 41 major industrial categories. "This has effectively driven the development of the manufacturing industry toward being high-end, intelligent and green."

On November 7, the MIIT released a 5G Factory List, the first such list for 2024, with 400 factories. These factories are involved in various industries such as mining, electronics, food and beverages, shipbuilding, automobiles and equipment manufacturing.

These 400 5G factories drove investment of more than 22 billion yuan ($3.04 billion), and the average investment of each plant increased by nearly 180 percent year-on-year, another official of the MIIT said at the conference.

There are more than 15,000 "5G + industrial internet" projects nationwide, including more than 4,000 5G factories, the official said.

In March 2023, MIIT Minister Jin Zhuanglong said during the two sessions that China planned to build more than 10,000 5G factories during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25).

"Chinese manufacturers are entering a critical phase of digital transformation. Embracing digital trends has brought tangible benefits to many producers across the country," Pan Helin, a member of the Expert Committee for the Information and Communication Economy under the MIIT, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

The application of 5G+ and industrial internet in various industries reduces manufacturing costs while increasing efficiency, Wang Peng, an associate research fellow at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

For example, the application of a 5G network in an automobile manufacturing factory has enabled the operation of unmanned intelligent inspections and the predictive maintenance of equipment, which increased the overall production efficiency by 23.5 percent and reduced operating costs by 25 percent, according to a report by the Department of Economy and Information Technology of Hubei Province published on Tuesday.

In another example, the application of 5G and artificial intelligence in a home appliance factory has increased production efficiency by 172.67 percent, and the product defect rate decreased by 23.72 percent, read the report.

"Promoting the digitalization and intelligent transformation of traditional industries is conducive to the optimization and upgrading of the industrial structure and high-quality economic development," said Wang.

Pan also said that digital transformation is key to advancing new industrialization and building a modern industrial system.

The application of 5G has covered 76 major categories of the national economy, deeply integrating into key areas. With the continuous promotion of "5G + industrial internet" on a large scale, 5G factories are being established one after another, and new models and formats are emerging, boosting the digital transformation of industries in China, according to an official report.