China will draft new policies to promote the development of industrial internet, a tech frontier where all major economies are scrambling to establish a beachhead, as it is widely seen as a cornerstone to the fourth industrial revolution, the country's top industry regulator said on Thursday.

The comments came as the industrial scale of China's industrial internet exceeded 1.2 trillion yuan ($167.7 million).

Zhang Yunming, vice-minister of industry and information technology, said in a speech at the 2023 Industrial Internet Conference in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, that industrial internet is an important cornerstone of the fourth industrial revolution, a key foundation for the deep integration of the digital economy and the real economy, and a strategic infrastructure for new industrialization.

Zhang called on local governments to increase collaboration with the ministry, and strengthen policy coordination and support in funding, technology, talent and data, in order to continuously optimize the policy environment for the innovation and development of industrial internet.

The move came as this year marks the end of the MIIT's three-year plan for the innovative development of the industrial internet.

Facing new situations, tasks and requirements, the ministry will study new policies to promote the high-quality development of industrial internet, Zhang added.

According to him, as of now, China has nurtured 240 influential industrial internet platforms, and 28 of them are cross-industry and cross-domain platforms.

Moreover, the country has built a comprehensive identification and analysis system for industrial internet, which has covered 31 provincial-level regions, serving over 260,000 enterprises.

Also, the Alliance of Industrial Internet has attracted over 2,500 domestic and international members from over 80 industries, becoming the world's largest ecological cooperation carrier in the field of industrial internet, according to the ministry.