The digital transformation of the manufacturing industry is an inevitable choice for the manufacturing sector to adapt to the development requirements of the digital economy era and achieve high-quality development. In recent years, Anhui Province has taken the lead in accelerating new industrialization through the digital transformation of the manufacturing industry, actively cultivating new quality productive forces, and exploring a unique development path in the field of manufacturing digital transformation. This has resulted in the remarkable "Anhui Model," which has powerfully supported the high-quality development of Anhui's industry.

In 2024, Anhui Province presented an impressive results on the digital transformation of its manufacturing industry: the province added 8,943 enterprises above the designated size that have undergone digital transformation, exceeding the annual target by 178.9%, with the cumulative proportion of digitally transformed enterprises reaching 69.47%; industrial investment, technological transformation investment, and manufacturing investment increased year-on-year by 13.6%, 20.5%, and 13.3% respectively, maintaining double-digit growth for 48 consecutive months. The ranking of the manufacturing high-quality development index rose from 7th nationally last year to 5th. By the end of the first quarter of 2025, all 24,600 enterprises above the designated size in the province had initiated digital transformation, among which 18,800 enterprises above the designated size had completed digital transformation, accounting for 76.25% of all such enterprises.   

In 2024, Anhui's manufacturing digital transformation achieved a nationally leading position! Key indicators such as the manufacturing high-quality development index and the application rate of industrial cloud platforms have all ranked among the top five nationwide, with the number of industrial internet innovation leading cases ranking first in the country. 

For leading enterprises, the "Chain Leader" driving project was implemented, creating 9 provincial-level leading enterprise demonstration projects in 2024, totaling 109 provincial-level leading enterprise demonstration projects, which have driven more than 2,700 upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain to implement digital transformation.

To facilitate small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in finding a "reference book" for transformation, Anhui has implemented a "model-driven" approach to create typical demonstrations. Following the path of selecting specific industries, pilot enterprises, precisely matching service providers, creating models, and promoting them as examples, 103 provincial-level SME demonstration projects were established in 2024, encouraging SMEs in specific industries to learn from these examples. In 2024, 33 provincial-level smart factories and 206 digital workshops were recognized.

The digital transformation is inseparable from talent support. Anhui has formulated standardized training programs for 10 key industries, achieving full coverage of training for enterprises above the designated size, and issued the "Anhui Province Digital Economy Talent Cultivation Plan (2024—2027)". The plan aims to cumulatively cultivate more than 300,000 professionals in the digital economy by 2027. 

Source: anhuinews.com