A technician monitors equipment in Yili Future Intelligence and Health Valley. [Photo by Ding Genhou/For chinadaily.com.cn]

Hohhot, capital of North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, is making great strides in stepping up the development of its dairy industry, according to local media reports.

The sector is widely viewed as one of the city's most competitive areas of endeavor, with a full industry supply chain planned, and what's more, Hohhot is widely recognized as being China's dairy capital.

In 2019, Inner Mongolia formulated the strategic goal of taking the lead in realizing the revitalization of the dairy industry in the country by 2025.

That year, Hohhot issued the Hohhot Dairy Development Support Policy (Trial). In two years, 150 million yuan ($22.23 million) of subsidies from the central, autonomous region and municipal governments were handed over.

In 2021, Hohhot revised and refined its policies for the development of the dairy industry, to pave the way for the establishment of more pastures.

According to data released by the Hohhot finance bureau, from 2019 to 2021, Hohhot received 150 million yuan in special funds for the revitalization of the dairy industry from higher levels and at the municipal level it invested 170 million yuan in various types of dairy industry revitalization funds.

A cheese factory is in full production, operated by China Mengniu Dairy [Photo/Hohhot Daily]

In the process of the high-quality development of Hohhot's dairy industry, a new generation of information technology – represented by big data, the internet of things and 5G – is playing a key role.

One prime example is Yili Global Intelligent Manufacturing Industrial Park – part of Yili Future Intelligence and Health Valley – which officially started operations on July 12 in Hohhot.

In Asia's biggest intelligent high-end low-temperature dairy factory, Phase 8 of the 5G digital factory operating in Mengniu China Dairy Industrial Park – an intelligent energy control center, security system, logistics system and storage system – has been set up.

In the operations, 5G and intelligent manufacturing have been deeply integrated, realizing the online monitoring of equipment and product quality control, as well as the digitalization of information transmissions throughout the process.