China to make more efforts toward robot development, innovation

More efforts will be made from China to boost the innovation capabilities of robots and make more breakthroughs on related technologies for higher-quality development, officials said on Wednesday ahead of a global industry event that will be held in Beijing this month.

Wang Hong, an official from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said: "Accelerated steps will be made to build a collaborative innovation system for the robot industry chain to encourage robot firms to jointly participate in robotics technology research work and develop advanced robotic products and solutions."

"More efforts will also be made to maintain the stability of the supply chain and industrial chain of robots and actively promote them integrate into the global supply chain system of robots," Wang added.

Wang made the comments as the 2023 World Robot Conference is to be held in Beijing from August 16 to 22 with more than 320 guests from both home and abroad participating.

This year's exhibition will cover an area of 45,000 square meters. More than 600 products from over 140 companies will be exhibited and 40 companies will make their debut at the exhibition.

Data from MIIT showed that, last year, the output of industrial robots in China hit a new high, reaching 443,100 units, an increase of 21.07 percent year-on-year. China has become the largest industrial robot market for nine consecutive years, accounting for more than half of global sales.

Jiang Rui contributed to the story.