Opening ceremony of the 6th World Intelligence Congress held in North China's Tianjin Municipality on June 24, 2022. Photo: Courtesy of Jia Chenglong

"Intelligent transformation" has become the key word for representatives of industries from medical to car manufacturing at the sixth World Intelligence Congress (WIC) in North China's Tianjin Municipality. 

Amid a downward economic pressure and a more complicated external environment, leading technology companies, factories and industry experts noted at the two-day conference that a faster digital transformation, and China's advantage in digital economy would be the key to strengthening manufacturing prowess and stabilizing growth for the world's second-largest economy. 

Since March, the complex international situation combined with the coronavirus flare-ups have exerted a certain impact on the Chinese economy, which was then on a fast track of post-epidemic recovery. However, in the long run, the Chinese economy has a good fundamental orientation, strong resilience, and huge potential, Lenovo chairman and CEO Yang Yuanqing said in a statement the company sent to the Global Times on Friday.

Yang's confidence in China's economic prospects arises from the country's advantage in digital economy as global economies are all experiencing this crucial transformation. 
   
"China's digital economy and real economic development have their own advantages. When the digital economy is rooted in the solid foundation of the real economy, it can interact and integrate deeply, contributing to China's economic growth and becoming the 'ballast stone' for the steady growth of China's economy," Yang said.

As manufacturing giants are leading the transformation, participants also pointed out at the conference that it's crucial for industrial chain leaders to actively drive and support the change for small and medium companies, who are striving with a capital, technology and capital shortage.

Latest aerospace technology displayed at the 6th World Intelligence Congress held in North China's Tianjin Municipality on June 24, 2022. Photo: Courtesy of Jia Chenglong

Zhou Hongyi, Chairman and CEO of Qihoo 360 Technology, said at the opening ceremony on Friday that digitalization has become China's national strategy, and China is already at the forefront globally. 

However, the digitalization of most small- and medium-sized enterprises is in the "digital blind spot," facing difficulties, Zhou noted, calling for big firms to "take more responsibility" at this critical point.

Themed "New era intelligence: digitalization drives growth, intelligence wins future",  the sixth WIC runs through Friday to Saturday in Tianjin, the municipality neighboring capital city Beijing.

Tianjin has also been at the forefront of the digital transformation among Chinese cities. Partnering with Terminus Group, a China-based world-leading AIoT company, Tianjin is aiming for an "all-round" digital transformation in the coming years. 

A statement includes a strategic cooperation deal was sent to the Global Times by Terminus Group on Friday, which was signed during the sixth WIC. Terminus Group will participate in the overall planning of Tianjin's urban digitalization, and strengthen cooperation on new urban digital infrastructure.  

While helping Tianjin accelerate the construction of an artificial intelligence pioneer city, Terminus will also bring together upstream and downstream industries and capital, to develop an ecological cluster of intelligent technology industries in the Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei region, Terminus Group founder and CEO Victor Ai, told the Global Times in a statement on Friday.

According to the organizers, the congress will hold two summits that are expected to attract more than 20 Chinese and foreign representatives from leading enterprises, experts and scholars. The congress' online technology exhibition attracted more than 200 companies including Huawei, Tencent and Alibaba and will be held online from June 24 to 30.

Five competitions this year highlighting smart driving, robotics, mobile apps, data processing and algorithms and sports will also be held this year, organizers said.