A robotic arm is seen in a workshop at Alibaba's Xunxi Digital Factory in Hangzhou's Yuhang district. [Photo/IC]

The Zhejiang Provincial Department of Economy and Information Technology on Dec 23 published a "future factories" list comprising 12 Zhejiang-based companies.

Another list of 16 nominated factories was released as well.

The term "future factories" refers to intelligent manufacturers that have fully integrated the latest information technology with advanced production modes.

In August, the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Economy and Information Technology published a tentative action plan to promote the development of "future factories" in Zhejiang and set the long-term goal of developing about 10 "future factories" in the province each year starting from 2020.

Zhejiang authorities started incentivizing manufacturers to replace workers with machines in 2012, an unprecedented move by a local government in China. From 2013 to 2017, the province's enterprises above a designated size saw their per capital productivity surge by 51.2 percent. A pioneer in industrial automation, Zhejiang now has the highest number of robots in service among all Chinese provinces.

On the basis of industrial automation, Zhejiang authorities had in 2018 set the plan of promoting intelligent manufacturing so as to gain an edge over the competition. The development of "future factories" is an integral step in that plan.