Recent photo of Liu Aimin [Photo courtesy of China Academy of Industrial Internet]

As a new-type infrastructure, application model and industrial ecology featuring an in-depth integration of the new generation of information and communication technologies (ICT) and the industrial economy, the Industrial Internet has helped set up a brand-new manufacturing and service system that covers the entire industrial chain and the value chain through a comprehensive connection of people, machines, objects, and systems. This serves as an important cornerstone of the Fourth Industrial Revolution by providing a way to realize digitalization, networking and intellectualization of the various industries. The Industrial Internet is an integral part of digital industrialization, and also a major driving force for promoting industrial digitalization. It plays a significant role in promoting the high-quality development of the digital economy.

1. An inevitable choice to comply with the general trend of digital economy development 

Digital economy is a new economic form with modern information networks as the main carrier, which uses the integration and application of information and communication technologies and the all-factor digital transformation as a major driving force to promote more unified fairness and efficiency. As a major economic form following agricultural and industrial economy, digital economy is bringing about profound changes in production methods, lifestyles and governance patterns, and has become a key force in reorganizing global factor resources, reshaping the global economic structure, and changing the global competition pattern.