The 2021 World Robot Conference opened in the Beijing Economic and Technological Development Area (BDA) on Sept 10.

Cai Qi, Party secretary of Beijing Municipality, and Chen Jining, mayor of Beijing, attended the opening ceremony and kicked off the conference.

At the opening ceremony, astronauts from the Chinese space station sent a video blessing.

With the theme "sharing new achievements and injecting new driving forces", the conference will showcase new technologies, products, models, and business forms in the robotics industry, as well as facilitate high-level exchange activities related to robotic research, application fields, and innovative development.

According to the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economics and Information Technology, Beijing will target medical and health robots, special robots, collaborative robots, and autonomous mobile robots for a "4+1" robot industry layout.

By 2025, the city's robot industry revenue is expected to exceed 20 billion yuan ($3.1 billion).

Currently, the BDA has gathered more than 150 robotics and intelligent manufacturing enterprises. At the end of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period, the combined output value of the robotics and intelligent manufacturing industries in the BDA is expected to exceed 100 billion yuan, and two or three industry service platforms will be built.