China is stepping up efforts to develop the industrial internet, as two important action plans on the industrial internet have been approved recently, said an official from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Sunday.

The three-year development plan and the work plan for the lead working group on the industrial internet were approved recently to guide and accelerate the development and application of advanced manufacturing, said Liu Jie, deputy head of the telecommunication management department at MIIT.

The move is part of the nation's broader effort to advance the Made in China 2025 plan to bolster competitiveness in advanced manufacturing. Earlier guidelines have indicated that China is expected to lead the world in key sectors of the industrial internet by 2035.

"China has accumulated over 30 industrial internet platforms with certain size and commercialized ability. Moreover, more than 630 companies and institutes in fields including manufacturing, automation and internet have joined in the alliance of the industrial internet," he noted.

Liu made the remarks at the 2018 China International Big Data Industry Expo in Guiyang, Southwest China's Guizhou province, which aims to enhance international exchanges and cooperation in the development of the big data industry.

"As a power in both manufacturing and the internet, we are expected to ramp up efforts in collaboration between internet and manufacturing companies and will accelerate the research and development of core technologies," he added.

In the past few years, a group of Chinese companies, including China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp and Sany Heavy Industry Co Ltd, have beefed up their presence in the industrial internet segment.

Gao Hongwei, chairman of CASIC, one of the nation's major space contractors, said at the expo that by now, the company's industrial internet platform has attracted 1.65 million registered users and 13,000 companies from abroad.