The companies that have initiated major IoT-related projects in the city include Alibaba, Huawei and biopharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca.

Located in Wuxi's core, Xuelang IoT town arose from the Wuxi government and Alibaba Group's determination to accelerate the integration of the IoT and manufacturing.

Wang Jian, founder of Alibaba Cloud and an adviser to Xuelang town, said that Xuelang town gave the world not only a new "town" but a new "time" - digital time, which makes data a resource for industrial production and will make manufacturing the engine of the future digital economy.

Wuxi has currently established 14 international standards in the field of IoT, affirming the city's key role in global IoT industrial development.

"Standardization is most important for the development of the IoT, and Wuxi is the master of standard setting," said Liu Haitao, director of the Wuxi IoT Industry Research Institute and chairman of World Sensing Net Group.

"Industrial development cannot be separated from product application," said Gao Yaguang, vice-mayor of Wuxi.