Big data key to ramp up industrial digitalization

Intensified efforts to activate the potential of industrial data will help boost the integrative development of "5G plus industrial internet", contributing to the upgrade of traditional sectors, industry experts said on Monday.

The remarks came after the nation's top industry regulator called for efforts to explore the construction of big data trading platforms and improve the level of data management and utilization over the weekend.

"In the past 30 years, we have developed a consumer-oriented digital economy, such as e-commerce platforms. But future development is more about industrial digital economy, such as industrial internet and intelligent manufacturing," said Sun Ke, deputy director of the institute of political science and economics at the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, a Beijing-based think tank.

There is a huge leap from the consumer-oriented digital economy to an industry-focused one, Sun said.

"In the era of industrial digital economy, each vertical industry differs from others considerably, and it is difficult to have unified data standards for them," Sun said, adding more push is needed to better define data-related rights.

Xiao Yaqing, minister of industry and information technology, said on Saturday the ministry will make more of a push to guide companies to better leverage data resources. He called for more measures to accelerate the development of standards in areas such as the interaction of industrial data.

Xiao gave those remarks at the 2021 China 5G + Industrial Internet Conference, held in Wuhan, Hubei province, over the weekend.

Data from the ministry showed the integrative development of "5G plus industrial internet" is on a fast track. Currently, more than 1,800"5G plus industrial internet" projects are under construction in China, covering 10 important industries such as mining, coal and electricity. More than 100 influential industrial internet platforms have also been built.

At the 2021 China 5G+ Industrial Internet Conference, China Mobile, the largest telecom operator in China, is partnering with Huawei Technologies Co and other organizations to speed up construction of smart mines in the nation by releasing a white paper on 5G underground mobile communication networks.

The purpose of the paper is to cooperate with industry partners to jointly build an underground intelligent comprehensive communication network as well as an underground mobile communication 5G industrial ecosystem. This will help ensure safe production and intelligent development of China's mining industry by using fully 5G and industrial internet technologies.

Market research company International Data Corp predicts that by 2025, China's data will account for 27.8 percent of the world's total, ranking it first worldwide.

Zeng Yu, director of the China Internet Network Information Center, said data is the fifth most important economic element after land, labor, capital and technology, adding more efforts are needed to explore how to marketize data.