A technician oversees the manufacture of forklifts at a company in Huzhou, Zhejiang province. [Photo by TAN YUNFENG/FOR CHINA DAILY]

East China's Zhejiang province recently obtained approval from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to become China's first national demonstration zone for the transformation and upgrading of traditional manufacturing sectors.

The Zhejiang Provincial Department of Economy and Information Technology hosted a press conference on Sept 9 to provide an overview on the province's goals and plans related to fulfilling its aforementioned new mission.

In 2020, 57.8 percent of value-added and 59.7 percent of profits made by the province's above-designated-sized industrial companies were derived from its 17 key traditional manufacturing sectors.

According to officials at the press conference, Zhejiang will accelerate the deep integration of new-generation information technologies and traditional manufacturing sectors by spreading the use of industrial internet of things platforms among manufacturers, as well as piloting more smart factories and intelligent industrial clusters.

Four industries, namely automobile and parts, green chemical engineering, modern textiles and garments, as well as new-generation information technology, have been chosen by the provincial authorities to be developed into world-class industrial clusters, with their combined industrial output expected to exceed 4 trillion yuan ($621 billion) in 2023.

Zhejiang authorities also stressed the importance of raising manufacturers'  efficiency in land and energy use to meet the nation's timetable for carbon neutrality. Zhejiang authorities have set the goal of collecting an average of 370,000-yuan in corporate taxes per mu (666 square meters) of industrial-use land by 2023.