Smart ICT to quicken restart

Logistics, courier companies, and internet-enabled transportation enterprises will be encouraged to take the lead in resuming work, by fully leveraging the new-generation information and communication technologies, or ICT, China's top industry regulator said on Wednesday.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said in a statement that it will support close partnerships between industrial e-commerce platforms and logistics companies that can use big data, blockchain and other technologies to build a smart logistics system.

The move is designed to ensure the efficient circulation and supply of raw materials for industrial companies and necessities for people's daily lives, which are prerequisites for large-scale work resumption.

It is also part of China's broader push to step up production and resume work, while intensifying efforts to fight the novel coronavirus pneumonia outbreak and maintain economic stability.

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, also Chinese President, said the use of digital technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence and cloud computing must be encouraged so that they can serve as a pillar in the monitoring and analysis of outbreaks, tracing viruses, epidemic control and prevention, medical treatment and distribution of resources.

Xi made the comments while presiding over the 12th meeting of the Central Committee for Deepening Overall Reform, which was held in Beijing on Feb 14.

In response, the ministry said more efforts will be made to encourage companies to better leverage cutting-edge technologies to contain the novel coronavirus outbreak and to resume work and restart production at plants.

The ministry said it will further promote cooperation between manufacturing companies and information technology enterprises so that a wider use of industrial internet, industrial software applications, unmanned production, remote operation, and other new business formats can help plants quickly restore production.

As for small-and medium-sized enterprises which find it difficult to resume work in offices amid the epidemic, the ministry said it will make more efforts to motivate them to move their businesses to the cloud and to encourage them to embrace remote work, video conferencing, online training and other formats to partially restart work.

China Mobile, the largest mobile carrier in the country, has played an active part in leveraging 5G, big data analysis and other state-of-the-art technologies in epidemic prevention.

China Mobile has developed a 5G-powered remote medical consultation platform, which can empower doctors to treat patients who are far away. By simply downloading and installing an app to a smartphone, doctors in Guangdong province can help treat patients in Hubei province. So far, over 140 doctors in Guangzhou-based Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital have used the platform to treat patients.

The company has also established a 300-strong big data analysis team, which works 24 hours a day to analyze relevant data. For instance, by tracking the flow of people getting out of Wuhan, capital of the Hubei province and the epicenter of the novel coronavirus outbreak, China Mobile has sent warnings to districts that receive the most visits from Hubei residents.