China is planning new policies to promote the development of IIoT and industrial internet technologies, the country’s top industry regulator has announced.

Zhang Yunming, vice-minister of industry and information technology, said in a speech at the 2023 Industrial Internet Conference in Suzhou that the government sees the industrial internet as an important cornerstone of the country’s adoption of the fourth industrial revolution.

Zhang said that to date, China has nurtured 240 influential industrial internet platforms, with 28 of them cross-industry and cross-domain platforms.

According to Zhang, industrial internet technologies are a key foundation for integration of China’s digital economy and its real economy, and a strategic infrastructure for new industrialisation.

The minister called on local governments throughout China to increase collaboration with his ministry, and strengthen policy coordination and support in funding, technology, talent and data, in order to continuously optimise the policy environment for the innovation and development of industrial internet.

The move came as this year marks the end of the China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology’s three-year plan for the development of the industrial internet.

The country has built an identification and analysis system for the industrial internet which covers 31 provincial-level regions and serves over 260,000 enterprises.

The industrial internet sector in China is now worth more than 1.2 trillion yuan ($167.7 million) according to new figures from the country’s government.