WUHAN - Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to the China 5G + Industrial Internet Conference that opened Friday in Wuhan, Central China's Hubei province.

The integration of 5G and the industrial internet will accelerate the building of a digital China and a smart society as well as the process of China's new industrialization, inject new impetus into China's economic development and create new development opportunities for the world economy under the shadow of the pandemic, Xi said in the letter.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, said he hopes participants of the conference deepen exchanges and enhance cooperation to better empower the real economy, serve society and benefit the people.

Xi stressed that it is of special significance that this conference is held in Wuhan, expressing the hope that Hubei Province and the city of Wuhan could take this conference as an opportunity to carry forward the great anti-epidemic spirit, promote the development of the digital economy, and contribute to the high-quality economic development and the building of a new development paradigm.

While addressing the opening ceremony of the conference via video link, Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, also a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, said that Hubei has maintained good momentum in the development of advanced manufacturing and the digital economy over the past few years.

Liu said Hubei should seize the opportunities and give full play to its comparative advantages while accelerating the development of 5G + industrial internet and advancing the modernization of the industrial chain.

Held for the first time and co-hosted by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the provincial government of Hubei, the conference aims to promote the integrated development of 5G and the industrial internet at a wider, deeper and higher level, and help support Hubei's post-epidemic economic recovery and development.