China will continue to upgrade its manufacturing industry and boost its intelligent manufacturing, as well as cut down its excessive capacity, the country's industry watchdog said on Monday.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said that it will extend the scope of pilot cities that carry out the "Made in China 2025" initiative.

"The number of pilot projects related to intelligent manufacturing across the nation this year will reach 60, compared with 46 last year," said Feng Fei, vice-minister of the MIIT.

The "Made in China 2025" initiative is a 10-year national plan designed to transform China from a manufacturing giant into a world high-tech manufacturing power. Robots and high-end numerically controlled machine tools are among 10 key fields for the initiative.

Miao Wei, minister of the MIIT, said on Sunday in Guangdong that the central government will allocate 5.2 billion yuan ($780 million) to promote 133 key projects in 25 provinces about intelligent manufacturing this year, which is nearly 1.5 times the money invested into the projects last year.

Siasun Robot & Automation Co, the country's biggest robot maker by market value, welcomed the policies to promote the development and research of industrial robots.

Qu Daokui, president of Siasun, said the company will make more effort to train talent to make and operate robots, as the national manufacturing initiative "Made in China 2025" gains momentum.

The company will also continue to make breakthroughs in core technologies and improve its innovative system to be the world's leading high-end equipment manufacturing and service provider.

Qu Xianming, an advanced manufacturing technology and equipment expert and executive director of the Chinese Mechanical Engineering Society, said the nation's manufacturing industry has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years.

Fanfeifei@chinadaily.com.cn