Ningxia will cultivate 100 smart factories in the next five years

China News Service, Yinchuan, November 11 (Reporter Li Peishan) He Liying, deputy director of the Department of Industry and Information Technology of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, said at a press conference held by the Autonomous Region Information Office on the 11th that in the next five years, Ningxia will take the new generation of intelligent manufacturing as a key direction to promote new industrialization, cultivate 100 smart factories and 5 digital leading companies, so that the computing resources in Zhongwei and other places can directly connect to the production line.

In the past five years, Ningxia's industrial added value above designated size has grown at an average annual rate of 8.7%, ranking third in China and higher than the national average for 19 consecutive quarters. At the same time, the contribution rate of industry to Ningxia's economic growth remains at around 40%. 80% of the autonomous region's innovation investment and 90% of specialized and new enterprises are concentrated in the industrial field.

At present, Ningxia has identified a number of advanced smart factories in batches. Smart factories will be cultivated according to the gradient of basic level, advanced level, excellence level and pilot level. According to the new plan, Ningxia will promote transformation in hierarchical categories. Leading chain-owner enterprises will carry out full-process and full-scenario digital transformation. Small and medium-sized enterprises will promote lightweight and low-cost transformation plans, and use "one chain, one policy" to promote the simultaneous transformation of the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain, achieving a leap from single-point transformation to upgrading the entire industry chain.

In terms of artificial intelligence applications, Ningxia will publish a technology supply list and an industrial demand list on a regular basis, opening up the channel of "industry questions and technology answers", and implementing large industrial models, intelligent sensors, and industrial robots around process optimization, equipment operation and maintenance, quality inspection, and safety production. It plans to create 5 large models, 50 industrial intelligence, and 500 "artificial intelligence + manufacturing" scenarios.

Zhongwei is the main location for Ningxia’s computing power. As one of the national hub nodes of China's integrated computing power network, Zhongwei Data Center Cluster's standard racks have exceeded 230,000 by the end of 2025, ranking third among the top ten clusters in the country in terms of intelligent computing scale, focusing on undertaking the computing power needs of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei. On this basis, Ningxia will coordinate the layout of general computing and intelligent computing, promote the entry of 5G-A and industrial sensors into workshops and production lines, accelerate the construction of regional nodes for national computing power interconnection, expand the coverage of secondary nodes for industrial Internet identification analysis, build 2 trusted data spaces, and cultivate 80 high-quality data sets.

He Liying said that according to the planning goals, by 2030, the application penetration rate of artificial intelligence technology in manufacturing enterprises above designated size in Ningxia will reach 50%.