Nation seeks stronger global ties in robotics industry

China is willing to join hands with the international community to cooperate and share in development opportunities in the robotics industry, and build open, stable and safe robotics industrial and supply chains, the country's top industry regulator said on Friday.

Xin Guobin, vice-minister of industry and information technology, urged efforts to establish stable industrial and supply chains, saying that China will continue to encourage robotics enterprises, institutions and organizations at home and abroad to form innovation and supply chain partnerships.

He made the remarks during the ongoing 2022 World Robot Conference, which closes on Sunday in Beijing.

China welcomes global investors to invest in and grow their business in the country and benefit from the nation's business opportunities, he said. The country will encourage more Chinese enterprises to "go global" and promote cooperation with their global counterparts.

Despite pressures from COVID-19 outbreaks and a complicated international environment, China's robotics industry has witnessed considerable growth.

The National Bureau of Statistics said output of China's industrial robots hit a record 366,000 units in 2021, up 68 percent year-on-year. Output of China's service robots jumped 49 percent to 9.21 million units last year.

In the first half of this year, the total disclosed financing amount in the robotics industry amounted to over 5 billion yuan ($733 million), mainly in key fields such as core parts, collaborative robots and surgery robots, Xin said.

Looking ahead, he said concerted efforts will be made to establish a standard mechanism for international exchange and cooperation, promote the alignment of different policies, regulations, quality standards, tests and certificates, build an open resource platform for global cooperation on robotics innovation and engage in the global governance of intellectual property rights.

Xin's remarks came after President Xi Jinping underscored the importance of scientific and technological self-reliance and innovation in supporting China's sustained development during a visit to Siasun Robot & Automation Co, one of China's largest robotics firms, in Shenyang, Liaoning province, on Wednesday.

Xi called for efforts to solve the critical technological problems hindering the nation's development and to "take the core technologies in key fields and equipment manufacturing into our own hands".

Zhang Jin, president of Siasun, said the company is stepping up its push to enhance the research and development of core robotics components and technologies.

At the conference, Siasun showcased a robot that can achieve high-precision, high-speed and high-stability operation, and move materials of different sizes in a vacuum environment. The vacuum robot can be used in semiconductor manufacturing, which helps fill a gap in the domestic market.