On January 7, reports emerged indicating that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology had recently unveiled the "Action Plan for the Integrated Empowerment of the Industrial Internet and Artificial Intelligence." This plan is geared towards expediting the open and intelligent transformation of industrial networks. Addressing emerging needs such as the collaborative production of intelligent equipment, the training and inference of industrial models, and the communication and interaction of industrial intelligent agents, the plan encourages industrial enterprises to leverage a broad spectrum of technologies, including 5G/5G-A, industrial optical networks, Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN), Single-Pair Ethernet (SPE), edge computing, and cloud-based control. The aim is to foster the integrated evolution and capability enhancement of industrial network control and computing, as well as to pioneer innovative applications of new industrial networks tailored to intelligent industrial services.

Furthermore, the plan underscores the importance of accelerating the research and development of products like 5G Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs), AI routers, and industrial computing network switches. It advocates for the regular publication of catalogs featuring new industrial network products, the promotion of new industrial network transformations in key sectors, and the cultivation of intelligent network capabilities that are self-organizing, self-managing, self-optimizing, and self-repairing.