World Intelligence Congress transforms city

Tianjin commits to innovation, helping develop industrial base and manufacturers

Tianjin’s annual World Intelligence Congress has bolstered the city’s industrial development and brought considerable benefits to local intelligent manufacturers.

This year’s WIC is scheduled for May 20­23. The congress will feature 18 parallel forums, five competitions, a large-­scale exhibition and an array of interactive facilities to offer visitors a unique artificial intelligence experience.

Launched in 2017, WIC is a multilevel platform that promotes academic exchanges and cooperation, and the exhibition and application of cutting-­edge intelligent technologies.

From the events, Tianjin has become committed to innovation, rolling out a slew of favorable measures and policies to build a foundation for the local intelligent manufacturing industry, said officials.

Among the beneficiaries is Danfoss, the world’s leading cooling equipment provider.

“We were inspired by products displayed at the event and got acquainted with new suppliers,” said Zhang Ruixing, operating manager of the Danfoss factory in Tianjin.

At the second WIC in 2018, the municipal government set up a fund of 10 billion yuan ($1.56 billion) to boost local intelligent manufacturing and 100 billion yuan to support next generation artificial intelligent industries in the city.

Danfoss (Tianjin) received a grant of 3 million yuan. With the money and its own investment, the company set in motion the digital transformation of production lines, leading to higher efficiency and lower costs.

Another regular participant of the event is Tianjin Deep in far Ocean Technology, a manufacturer of intelligent underwater equipment.

“Our industrial products have earned recognition for a long time,” said the company’s CEO Cheng Linyi. “However, before we attended the third WIC in 2019, our consumer products were accessed only by domestic underwater sports enthusiasts.”

“The congress gave us an opportunity to expand the domestic market and promote underwater sports,” he said.

“Since then, we have seen an increasing number of domestic customers purchase our consumer products, such as the underwater scooter and intelligent float board,” Cheng added.

Now, the company is developing more consumer products for underwater entertainment.

“We plan to showcase a smart waterproof phone and an underwater scooter equipped with a cellphone at this year’s congress to attract more consumers,” said Cheng.

Tianjin Port, an important shipping hub in north China, has been upgrading itself into a smart port.

By introducing a raft of technological innovations, the port has improved its overall efficiency by 20 percent, and cut labor costs by 60 percent compared with traditional container terminals, according to local government.

Economic driver

Over the past four sessions of the WIC, a total of 348 cooperation agreements have been signed with combined investment worth up to 353.2 billion yuan.

The city and district governments have allocated 5.21 billion yuan to help establish 102 smart factories and digital workshops, including those of Haier and Masterwork Technology.

The intelligent sci­-tech industry has become a major driving force for Tianjin’s industrial transformation, said Zhou Shengxi, chief economist at the Tianjin Industrial and Information Technology Bureau.

Statistics showed that the software industry in Tianjin racked up revenue of more than 200 billion yuan in 2020.

In the same period, the added value of strategic emerging industries accounted for 26.1 percent of those industries above designated size, up 8.6 percentage points from 2016.

Tianjin is to continue to promoting the application of intelligent technologies and advance the intelligent transformation of device manufacturing, consumer goods and new materials. This is expected to develop an example city in the country for intelligent manufacturing, said local officials.