City plans to get smart with leading technologies

On the back of government efforts to grow the city's intelligent technology industry, Tianjin has recorded that 16.6 percent of its total industry is involved in intelligent technology.

The intelligent technology industry is aiming to make the most out of new-generation information technologies to bring about the integrated development of intelligent industry with traditional industries, including manufacturing, healthcare, education, transformation, finance and agriculture, according to Yin Jihui, director of the Tianjin Industry and Information Technology Bureau.

Tianjin has introduced a series of policies and development plans to accelerate the growth of its intelligent technology industry, as part of its efforts to forge a new economic driver for the city.

"Tianjin has set up a special fund of 10 billion yuan ($1.41 billion) for intelligent manufacturing to upgrade from traditional manufacturing from the perspectives of production factors, production process and industry chain," Yin said.

In the past two years, Tianjin allocated a total fund of 3.62 billion yuan to support 911 projects with intelligent transformation.

By the end of 2019, Tianjin had built 60 intelligent plants and 100 digital workshops, according to Yin.

Tianjin's Binhai New Area has developed into a hot spot for developing infrastructure like 5G, the internet of things, artificial intelligence, integrated infrastructure for smart transportation and smart energy, and innovation infrastructure to support scientific research and technology development.

In the field of new-generation information technology, the new area has established an industry chain covering the design and manufacture of central processing units, operating systems, communications, databases and software.

The Binhai New Area has also attracted a raft of leading innovative companies and information service providers in China, including chip maker Semiconductor Manufacturing International, supercomputer manufacturer Sugon, or Dawning Information Industry and job-hunting platform 58.com.

In addition, a raft of high-level research institutions have set up branches in the new area, including the National Supercomputer Center, the Peking University Information Technology Institute (Tianjin Binhai) and the Tianjin Academy for Intelligent Recognition Technologies.

Giving full play to the role of intelligent technologies, Tianjin Port has built a world-first automated container facility, with intelligent tallying being realized for all terminals for the first time, according to Yin.

In the field of developing intelligent technology applications, Tianjin has also made great strides with scenarios covering nine sectors. They include connected vehicles, intelligent terminals, advanced communications and intelligent healthcare.

"Tianjin has introduced an action plan for developing intelligent connected vehicles, aiming to build up a whole industry chain covering positioning and navigation, onboard chips, algorithms, drive assistance, autonomous driving and human-computer interaction," Yin said.