SHANGHAI -- Shanghai wants to build an industrial cluster for producers of unmanned vehicles.

Hu Weiguo, head of the Jinshan district government in Shanghai, said on Saturday at the opening of the 2017 World Unmanned System Conference, that the district government had planned to push for the building of such a production base.

He said the government would encourage the research, production, testing and system integration of drones, self-driving vehicles and vessels, as well as intelligence robots in the industrial base.

China's unmanned system industry is still in an early stage of development, said Sun Baiyuan, secretary general of the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems of China.

He said the industry needed strategic development, network safety protection and research on market application.

During the meeting, there were drone shows for fire fighting and automated delivery, unmanned vehicles for digging and demolition, as well as self-driving boats for testing water quality.

Industry representatives from the United States, Britain and Germany among others attended the meeting.