SHENYANG - Chinese Vice Premier Ma Kai has urged more efforts to make the country's manufacturing industry smarter and more competitive.

China has made headway in smart manufacturing development since "Made in China 2025" was unveiled, but the country still had a long way to go to reach international advanced levels, Ma said during an inspection tour in Northeast China's Liaoning province from Thursday to Friday.

"Made in China 2025" was a plan released by the government in 2015 to transform China from a manufacturing giant into a world manufacturing power.

Authorities and companies should give priority to smart manufacturing in their efforts to upgrade the manufacturing industry, said Ma.

He demanded more work to achieve breakthrough in key technologies and core equipment in several fields, including numerically-controlled machine tools, robots, smart sensors and smart logistics.

Key supporting software should be developed faster and the standards for smart manufacturing should be improved, Ma said.

He also called for efforts to develop new business models such as customized production, and smart transformation of traditional industries and small firms.