With the theme of "Digital Transformation, Smarter Manufacturing", the 2021 World Intelligent Manufacturing Conference (2021 WIMC) kicked off in Nanjing on the morning of December 8. The attendees included Xin Guobin, Vice Minister of Industry and Information Technology, Zhou Ji, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Zhong Zhihua, Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Chen Xuedong, Vice Chairman of the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST), Hu Guangjie, Vice Governor of the Jiangsu Provincial People's Government, Xia Xinmin, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Nanjing Municipal Committee and Acting Mayor of the Nanjing Municipal People's Government, Long Xiang, Director of the Standing Committee of the Nanjing Municipal People's Congress, and Liu Yi'an, Chairman of the Nanjing Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. The 2021 WIMC was also attended by officials from relevant ministries and departments of provinces and municipalities, experts and scholars in intelligent manufacturing at home and abroad, representatives of institutions, universities and research institutes, chambers of commerce (associations) and well-known enterprises, and media reporters.

The 2021 WIMC implemented the guiding principles of the 19th CPC National Congress, the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th Plenary Sessions of the 19th CPC Central Committee, and the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important instructions during his visit to Jiangsu. Adhering to the mission of "Make Manufacturing Smarter" and with the goal of promoting the integrated development of the digital economy and real economy, the 2021 WIMC adopted a combination of online and offline activities to pool wisdom and efforts to pave the way for a digital age and share intelligent achievements. It strives to provide a globe-spanning platform for intelligent manufacturing that integrates high-end forums, results releases, business matchmaking, and industry competitions.

A series of major achievements were released at the opening ceremony. Specifically, the National Intelligent Manufacturing Expert Committee and the Chinese Expert Committee of Intelligent Manufacturing System Committee of International Electrotechnical Commission were formally established. The award ceremony of the first National Contest of Smart Manufacturing Innovation was held. The China Intelligent Manufacturing System Integrator Consortium released the list of leading intelligent manufacturing enterprises; China Academy of Information and Communications Technology released the intelligent manufacturing public service network; and the Intelligent Manufacturing Alliance of CAST Member Societies (IMAC) released "2021 World Top 10 Scientific and Technological Developments in Intelligent Manufacturing" and "2021 China Top 10 Scientific and Technological Developments in Intelligent Manufacturing".

At the opening ceremony, keynote speeches were delivered online or offline by Zhou Ji, an academician with the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Lou Qiliang, General Manager of CRRC Corporation Limited, Hube Andreas, Global Vice President of SAP, Xu Ziyang, President of ZTE Corporation, Xiao Song, Global Executive Vice-president of Siemens and CEO of Siemens Greater China, John Waldron, President and CEO of Honeywell Safety and Productivity Solutions, and Jiang Li, Chairman of TICA. The topics of their speeches are intelligent manufacturing talent training, deep integration of digital economy and manufacturing, digital services, further development of manufacturing driven by digital economy, quality development of manufacturing, digital transformation, and green development of lean manufacturing.

The "Cloud Expo" was staged at the opening ceremony and had three exhibition areas for application demonstration, technical services and industry ecosystem respectively. The never-ending "Cloud Expo" exhibited new technologies, new modes and new equipment for intelligent manufacturing of key enterprises in various sectors, as well as ecosystem elements like talent and finance that provide various soft environments for intelligent manufacturing. This session of the "Cloud Expo" added some new, practical functions, including cloud live streaming, cloud recruitment, cloud meetings, etc. These functions met multiple needs. They allowed exhibitors to better cooperate with upstream and downstream enterprises and users to learn more about the industry while watching the 2021 WIMC online.

During the 2021 WIMC, a series of activities were held, including the opening and closing ceremonies, sub-forums, the "Cloud Expo", the First National Intelligent Manufacturing Innovation Competition, etc. It gathered global leading enterprises, authorities, outstanding leaders and renowned experts in the field of intelligent manufacturing to discuss the status quo and hot topics of the field. The 2021 WIMC mainly demonstrated the technologies, products and solutions of the most representative enterprises in intelligent manufacturing, officially released the latest development achievements of the demonstration enterprises in this field at home and abroad, and facilitated worldwide cooperation among the important organizations and enterprises in the field.

The 2021 WIMC was co-sponsored by Jiangsu Provincial People's Government, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Engineering and China Association for Science and Technology, and jointly undertaken by the Industry and Information Technology Department of Jiangsu, the Foreign Affairs Office of Jiangsu Provincial People's Government, Jiangsu Association for Science and Technology, Jiangsu Research Institute of China Engineering Science and Technology Development Strategy, IMAC and Nanjing Municipal People's Government.