The Jiangsu Provincial Communications Administration and the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology jointly released the 15th Five-Year Plan for the Development of the Information and Communications Industry in Jiangsu Province recently. The plan sets out the core goal of fully building a new-generation communications network and a computing power network by 2030, fostering a landscape of deep integration and mutual reinforcement between artificial intelligence (AI) and the information and communications sector.

The plan specifies 14 major indicators to be achieved by 2030, covering the industry’s overall scale, green and low-carbon development, information infrastructure, and application popularization and empowerment. Specifically, revenue in the communications industry is projected to reach RMB 156 billion, with cumulative investment in information infrastructure hitting RMB 129 billion and an average annual growth rate of 7 percent in total telecommunications business volume. In addition, the province aims to have 51 5G (including 5G-A) base stations per 10,000 people and an intelligent computing capacity of 700 EFLOPS.

The plan deploys 23 key tasks across five areas, namely infrastructure, regional development, the digital-intelligent ecosystem, industry governance and cybersecurity, and proposes five major projects: expanding the capacity and upgrading the quality of backbone and metropolitan area networks, upgrading “dual-10-gigabit” networks, enhancing the quality of “dual-gigabit” networks, strengthening the foundation for high-quality AI development, and advancing innovation in low-altitude intelligent connectivity infrastructure. Specific measures include advancing the construction of new-generation communications networks with forward-looking planning and taking the lead nationwide in launching 6G trial networks; building a high-quality foundation for the computing power network, coordinating the tiered layout of computing centers across the province, and developing Token-level intelligent scheduling and service supply capabilities.