The 2024 Yangtze River Delta Digital Transformation Conference themed on “promoting digital transformation as the new productivity booster” was held in Nanjing from October 17 to October 18. This event, co-organized by the Digital Yangtze River Delta Alliance and Enterprise Informatization Association of Jiangsu under the guidance of Jiangsu Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology, was comprised of one main forum following the opening ceremony and four thematic sub-forums.

During the conference, persons in charge of information technology-based transformation and CIO from model enterprises, government representatives and experts from Jiangsu Province, Zhejiang Province, Anhui Province and Shanghai City shared practices on digitally empowered, integrated, and innovation-driven development and standard-setting, which showcased the latest achievements in smart manufacturing and the building of industrial internet of the Yangtze River Delta region. Guests also shared their views on the trend of digital transformation in the manufacturing sector, an integral part of the digital economy. The conference also witnessed the announcement of the selection of outstanding cases of AI + scenarios, the rollout of project on jointly advancing digital transformation and network connectivity of Jiangsu Province, and the debut of China Unicom’s large model factory-a platform for productivity improvement.

Chi Yu, Deputy Director General of Jiangsu Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology, elaborated on some of the steps Jiangsu will take to build a new industry system incorporating 16 advanced manufacturing clusters and 50 key industrial chains. These include developing a number of platforms empowering innovation-driven development and digital transformation, that of small and medium-sized enterprises in particular, through collaborative efforts with authorities of industry and information technology of other provinces and cities in the Yangtze River Delta region, cultivating model enterprises and designing joint programs; discussion over standard for the Yangtze River Delta industrial internet platform or smart factory building for the ultimate formation of a unified standard system; encouraging the development of service providers in such fields as smart equipment and platforms and network security, and their inter-regional collaboration.