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SHANGHAI -- Mobile World Congress Shanghai 2016 -- Cloud computing, mobile Internet, IoT and big data are the key applications that will drive the next phase in China's economic growth, according to Zhang Feng, Chief Engineer at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), China's main Internet and telecommunications regulator.
Speaking at the MWC Shanghai event, Feng said MIIT saw its role as promoting "supply-side" reform to drive the Internet economy, which the government saw as necessary for social progress.
In his speech, Feng outlined a four-point program the regulator was implementing to facilitate innovation.
Infrastructure: Improvements in infrastructure are required to drive China's Internet economy, so MIIT is pushing for faster broadband connectivity on both fixed line and mobile networks. In particular, it is focused on the broad roll-out of 4G networks.
Further innovation: Beyond the current generation of infrastructure, MIIT want to speed the deployment of the next generation. Feng identified new hotspot technology and 5G as important "facilitators of entrepreneurship." He also announced an aggressive push for 5G development, saying it would be commercialized by 2020 in China.
Telecom integration: China wants to push for what Feng called "smart manufacturing," the integration of telecoms and IT technologies into the manufacturing sector. The government sees this as particularly important for the next generation of growth in the Chinese economy. (See China's Telcos at Heart of IIoT Plans .)
"Sharing economy": MIIT wants to proactively push for more sharing of results and trials to drive "synergistic innovation," both within China and with foreign companies. Feng believes this will add impetus to innovation and entrepreneurship.
China has reached a certain stage in its growth trajectory where low-cost manufacturing is becoming a weaker driver for the economy. MIIT seems to believe that the integration of technology is the solution, to help create new efficiencies and customization for manufacturing that will have a direct impact on economic growth. Feng sees lowering the cost of web access, faster and ubiquitous connectivity and a regulatory push for big data and IoT deployment as key elements of this strategy.
Whether it is successful in reinvigorating macroeconomic growth remains to be seen, but MIIT will likely succeed in making China a global leader in broadband and Industrial IoT technology.
— Aditya Kishore, Practice Leader, Video Transformation, Telco Transformation
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