- City leads national evaluation of industrial digitization program
- Ningbo and Wuhan follow in second and third place
Hangzhou ranked first among 30 pilot cities in China’s small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) digital transformation program, according to a joint assessment released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and the Ministry of Finance.
The results underscorethe city’s broader efforts to integrate digital tools into manufacturing.
The initiative was jointly introduced by the two ministries to accelerate digital adoption among SMEs and deepen integration between the digital economy and traditional manufacturing sectors.
The evaluation places Hangzhou ahead of Ningbo and Wuhan, which ranked second and third respectively across the first batch of 30 cities selected under the program launched in 2023.
Deepening integration
Since joining the pilot, Hangzhou has focused on three key industries: automotive components, biomedicine and healthcare, and communications equipment manufacturing.
MIIT data showed the city had completed digital upgrades for 586 companies and accepted 640 transformation projects, achieving 106.5% of its target.
A reading above 100% indicates the city exceeded its official targets.
According to data released by the Hangzhou Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology, the city had set a goal of completing digital transformation upgrades for 550 enterprises, but ultimately finished 586, surpassing the MIIT target by 36 companies.
Four-tiered approach
Regulators highlighted Hangzhou’s approach in four main areas: building a structured service provider ecosystem, developing a standardized solution library, expanding financial support tools and deploying expert resources into factories.
The city assembled more than 140 service providers, including eight lead integrators, 52 pilot vendors and 90 preparatory service firms, forming what officials described as a coordinated “transformation fleet” for SMEs.
It also introduced 124 “lightweight, low-cost and fast-deployment” digital solutions, some priced below 10,000 yuan, aimed at lowering adoption barriers for smaller manufacturers.
On the financing side, local authorities worked with financial institutions to roll out “digital transformation loans,” providing 1.74 billion yuan in guarantees to 117 pilot firms.
In addition, 50 university experts were embedded into companies to design tailored transformation plans for 56 enterprises, covering end-to-end implementation support.
50 ‘AI factories’
“SME digital transformation is a key lever for advancing new industrialization and exploring deeper integration between AI and manufacturing,” an MIIT official said on condition of anonymity during the assessment meeting in mid-May.
Hangzhou aims to cultivate more than 50 “AI factories” this year, with plans to embed AI across production processes and scale digital transformation from pilot projects into replicable models, the Hangzhou Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology said in a statement.
