(Yicai Global) July 19 -- Shanghai will speed up the development of the industrial internet sector, which is the linking of Big Data, analytical tools and wireless networks with factory equipment, by launching a series of measures, including supporting the initial public offering of companies that run these platforms, the municipal government said.

Shanghai will encourage the entry of qualified operators of industrial internet service platforms into the capital market and will also urge banks to offer financial products and services that meet the financing requirements of these firms, according to a blueprint issued by the Shanghai municipal government yesterday.

Industrial internet service platforms are a novel economic format that provide supporting services for the production and distribution of goods, the document said. These platforms serve those trading in bulk commodities, in e-commerce for manufactured goods as well as in digital transformation services and other professional services.

Shanghai’s industrial internet service industry is now worth over CNY1 trillion (USD138.7 billion). The yearly turnover of 11 bulk-good platforms has topped CNY10 billion (USD1.4 billion) for each and that of the four biggest e-retailers for industrial products amounts to almost CNY50 billion, making up one quarter of China's total online turnover of industrial goods, Zhu Min, director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce, said at the press briefing yesterday.

Shanghai’s goal is to hike the yearly turnover of industrial internet service platforms to more than CNY3.3 trillion (USD457 billion) and to nurture over 100 platform operators by 2025, said Ge Dongbo, chief engineer of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization. More than 30 of these will be industry leaders, he added.

Shanghai will also support the low-carbon growth of the industrial internet by guiding platforms to form reliable carbon accounting systems, by improving the carbon trading system as well as by encouraging these platforms to participate in setting international emission standards, it added.

Editors: Lv Yining, Kim Taylor