Policymakers Focus on 2017 Smart Manufacturing Strategy

Policymakers Focus on 2017 Smart Manufacturing Strategy
One of the main themes coming out of CPP propaganda in 2017 is “Strong Manufacturing, Big Cyber Nation” or 制造强国，网络大国。With a lot of changes in party members and new directives on policy, it is necessary to closely monitor industrial policy as it relates to internet governance. From February 20 to 21, CAICT, the think tank under MIIT, hosted the 2017 Industrial Internet Summit. The Alliance of Industrial Internet (AII) was founded by CAICT in 2016 and is mainly responsible for the development of the Industrial Internet, a key component to China Manufacturing 2025. At the event, MIIT Minister Miao Wei (苗圩), MIIT Vice Minister Chen Zhaoxiong (陈肇雄), and CAC Deputy Director Zhuang Rongwen (庄荣文 ) all gave keynote speeches on the importance of digitizing and automating the manufacturing industry.
 
While China Manufacturing 2025 and Internet + Action Plan are both national level policies promulgated by the State Council, MIIT and CAC play an important role in implementing these policies and integrating the two to formulate the Industrial Internet. Industrial Internet is defined as new generation IT integrated with manufacturing to build a new industry and application ecosystem as well as the automation of key information infrastructure. Together, MIIT and CAC are focused on improving new network deployment, industrial internet platforms, industrial data analysis and security protection. In Zhuang’s speech, he emphasized the need for an increase in the quality of products and implementing these new technologies across traditional industry to create new areas of economic growth.  Moving forward, they will focus more on innovation, developing frameworks, and establishing an ecosystem for intelligent manufacturing. AII announced the first version of their Industrial Internet architectural framework in September of last year, just a few short months after its launch.
 
According to the IT Industry Development Plan Readout on Smart Manufacturing the main goals for SM2025 in 2017 are to set national standards, further develop the framework and reference architecture, lay out a clear map for development and innovation plans, and set up more pilot projects. Standards for Industrial Internet will be important in the coming months as standards bodies develop over 60 new smart manufacturing standards in the areas of system architecture, network technology, resource management, and internet equipment. It should also be noted that the readout included the term ‘secure and controllable’ to describe infrastructure.