An intelligent workshop in Zhangjiagang, Suzhou, Jiangsu province. [Photo/zjgonline.com.cn]

Zhangjiagang in Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu province was ranked third in a list of Chinese counties in terms of efforts to promote digital innovation through the industrial internet. The list was released during the fifth Digital China Summit held from July 23 to 24.

The county-level city has been making consistent efforts in recent years to integrate the internet with its manufacturing industry and is presently home to seven provincial-level industrial internet key platforms and model companies as well as 78 provincial-level demonstration smart factories.

Due to the use of intelligent equipment across the entire production process, Jiangsu Shagang Group, a steelmaker in Zhangjiagang, has increased its productivity by 31.5 percent and reduced operating costs and defect rates by 23.3 percent and 26.8 percent respectively.

Zhangjiagang has also issued a series of policies to encourage industrial companies to shift their production, management, and research and development to the cloud. Since the end of 2020, the city has introduced 60 leading cloud services suppliers and connected more than 10,000 pieces of equipment in small and medium-sized enterprises to the internet.

In June, Suzhou Zhongtian Coburg Technology Co signed a cooperation agreement with the Zhangjiagang branch of China Telecom to invest 20 million yuan ($2.95 million) in the building of a new intelligent factory.

Zhangjiagang carried out 1,589 intelligent and digital transformation projects in 2021. It plans to implement more than 1,200 such projects and help more than 500 companies become cloud-based this year.