More than 2.9 billion people in the world today, mostly in the less-developed countries, still do not have access to the internet.

Industrial robots are expected to see rapid growth in China as the recovery of the downstream manufacturing sector and the expansion of production of lithium batteries, new energy vehicles and other industries drives demand.

More efforts will be made to cultivate the data market and encourage enterprises of all types of ownership to participate in the construction of data trading platforms, said the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Tuesday.

China should firmly grasp the opportunities from the next-generation artificial intelligence technology, which is playing an increasingly important part in accelerating the digitalization of traditional industries and promoting the in-depth integration of the digital economy with the real economy, officials and company executives said at the 6th World Intelligence Congress, which kicked off on Friday in Tianjin.

As summer farming work proceeds across China, smart facilities like automated tractors are being widely used, making the work more efficient and reducing labor costs, farmers said.

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement, which took effect on Jan 1, will spur technological innovation of Chinese enterprises, accelerate the upgrading of traditional industries, and add more resilience to regional industrial and supply chains, experts said.