A fleet of heavy trucks is on standby to start construction of a major project in Baotou's Qingshan district. [Photo/Baotou news network]

The Qingshan district of Baotou city, located in North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, has prioritized intelligent manufacturing, which it sees as being key to transforming its industrial growth and galvanizing the driving forces of expansion.

As a result, more and more of the district's businesses are accelerating the shift from conventional manufacturing to intelligent manufacturing.

Baotou Equipment Park, located in Qingshan district, for example, has been awarded the title of Excellent Park in the Economic Belt along the Yellow River in Inner Mongolia for four consecutive years. In 2021, the park's output value was 79.14 billion yuan ($11.8 billion), a year-on-year increase of 31.46 percent, while tax revenue was 1.8 billion yuan, up 6.7 percent.

A production line swings into action at a plant operated by First Machinery Group, in Qingshan district. [Photo/Baotou news network]

On Jan 5, the district completed the signing of the first key project in the year, with the northwest regional operations center of Jiangsu Laohu Cloud Technology Co set to be based in the park.

Jiangsu Laohu Cloud Technology, which ranks 40th among China's top 100 industrial internet enterprises, is a leading digital new infrastructure service provider and digital new business services platform.

Company CEO, Chen Jun, reportedly regards Baotou as being a bridgehead to extend its business into the northwest region and it attaches great importance to its strategic significance.

Baotou Equipment Park has great expansion plans of its own. "We will renovate more than 20 smart factories and digital workshops to realize full coverage of the digital, networked and intelligent transformation of manufacturers above a designated size," said a senior official at the park.