Beijing's robotics industry hits 10B yuan in 2018

With over 400 robot companies, Beijing saw 10 billion yuan (about US$1.4 billion) in revenue from the robotics industry in 2018. This number is expected to surpass 12 billion yuan by 2021 as the supporting system for the industry is progressing, said Wang Gang, director of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology, at the forum of the ongoing World Robot Conference 2019.

China's robot industry has been growing at a pace higher than the world's average during the past 5 years, well on its way to reach US$8.68 billion this year. Beijing enjoys unique advantages in terms of R&D, integration system and technological services of robot development, as well as plentiful resources for innovative growth of the industry, said Wang. He added that robot applications have a vast market in the city thanks to the booming of advanced and sophisticated industries and people's high demand for these applications, which, in turn, give rise to new products.

Wang also said that an action plan is under formulation, which will map out further development in Beijing's robotic industry and form a complete industrial development framework for robots for special uses and their coordinated development.

The Chinese capital will promote robotic innovation on four fronts, namely, R&D and robot applications, collaboration between state-owned enterprises and their partners in Beijing, incubation for innovation and entrepreneurship, and cooperation among various sectors, according to Wang.

Wang pointed out that Beijing will also enhance robotic applications in industry, public security, and people's livelihood, the latter featuring a focus on encouraging business participation in the organization of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games and the building of the city's sub-center.

Beijing will also support major robotic enterprises to form a chain of cooperation as a way to promote the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. "Our goal is to build Beijing's robotic industry into an international paradigm for robotic innovation and applications by 2021," he said.