Focus on the metaverse and generative AI, four departments issue the Implementation Plan for the New Industry Standardization Pilot Project.

Four departments issue the Implementation Plan for the New Industry Standardization Pilot Project, focusing on the metaverse and generative AI.

Source: A Brief History of the Metaverse

01 What is the background of formulating the “Implementation Plan”?

New industries refer to emerging industries and future industries that develop and grow with the application of new technologies. They have characteristics such as innovation, technological intensity, and broad development prospects, which are related to the overall development of the national economy, social development, and the optimization and upgrading of industrial structure. General Secretary Xi Jinping attaches great importance to the development of new industries and has made important instructions to build a new generation of information technology, biotechnology, new energy, new materials, and high-end equipment as a new engine for industrial growth. The “14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People’s Republic of China and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035” proposes the development and growth of emerging industries and forward-looking planning for future industries.

Standardization plays a fundamental and leading role in promoting the development of new industries. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized the use of high standards to support high-tech innovation, promote high-level opening up, and lead high-quality development. The “Outline for the Development of National Standardization” proposes to implement the “New Industry Standardization Leading Project,” conduct standardization research on emerging and future industries, formulate a batch of application-driven new standards, and cultivate and develop new formats and models. In response to this, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, together with the Ministry of Science and Technology, the National Energy Administration, the National Standardization Committee, and other departments, formulated the “Implementation Plan for the New Industry Standardization Leading Project (2023-2035)” (hereinafter referred to as the “Implementation Plan”), continuously improving the construction of the emerging industry standard system, forward-looking layout of future industry standard research, fully exerting the guiding role of new industry standards in promoting technological progress, serving enterprise development, strengthening industry guidance, and leading industry upgrading, continuously improving the technical level and internationalization of new industry standards, and providing solid technical support for accelerating the high-quality development of new industries and building a modern industrial system.

02 What are the main areas of focus in the “Implementation Plan” for new industries?

According to documents such as the “14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People’s Republic of China and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035” and the “Outline for the Development of National Standardization,” taking into account the current status and development potential of the industry, the “Implementation Plan” mainly focuses on the standardization work of emerging and future industries, forming the key areas of “8+9” for new industry standardization.

Among them, the emerging industries focus on 8 major areas: new generation information technology, new energy, new materials, high-end equipment, new energy vehicles, green environmental protection, civil aviation, ships and marine engineering equipment;

The future industries focus on 9 major areas: metaverse, brain-machine interface, quantum information, humanoid robots, generative artificial intelligence, bio-manufacturing, future displays, future networks, and new energy storage.

03 What is the overall approach of the “Implementation Plan” for promotion?

The “Implementation Plan” is guided by Xi Jinping’s Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, fully implements the spirit of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, takes the new development stage as the basis, fully and accurately implements the new development concepts, serves the new development pattern, adheres to the path of new industrialization, aims to promote the innovative development of emerging industries and seize the opportunities for future industrial development, and takes the improvement of an efficient and collaborative new industry standardization work system as the starting point. In accordance with the basic principles of innovation-driven, application-driven, systematic layout, project promotion, and open cooperation, it coordinates the research, formulation, implementation, and internationalization of new industry standards, fully exerts the leading role of new industry standards in promoting technological progress, serving enterprise development, strengthening industry guidance, and leading industry upgrading, continuously improving the technical level and internationalization of new industry standards, and providing solid technical support for accelerating the high-quality development of new industries and building a modern industrial system.

04 What are the main goals of the “Implementation Plan”?

In order to consider the long-term development of standardization in new industries, the “Implementation Plan” proposes a “three-step” goal for 2025, 2030, and 2035 respectively, using a combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches, and promotes implementation through engineering.

By 2025, the standard system supporting the development of emerging industries will gradually improve, and the standards leading the future industrial innovation will accelerate formation. The proportion of standard achievements formed by common key technologies and application-oriented scientific and technological plan projects reaches more than 60%, and the linkage between standards and industrial technological innovation is more efficient. More than 2,000 national standards and industry standards are newly formulated, and more than 300 advanced group standards are cultivated, playing a more powerful role in guiding the high-quality development of industries with standards. More than 10,000 enterprises participate in standard promotion and implementation, highlighting the effectiveness of standards in serving the transformation and upgrading of enterprises. Participate in the formulation of more than 300 international standards, and the conversion rate of key areas of international standards exceeds 90%, supporting and leading the international development of new industries.

By 2030, the standard system meeting the high-quality development needs of new industries will continue to improve, and the standardization work system will be more sound. The technical level and internationalization of new industry standards will continue to improve, and the effectiveness of leading the high-quality development of new industries with standards will be more significant.

By 2035, the supply of standards meeting the high-quality development needs of new industries will be more sufficient, and a comprehensive work system for new industry standardization with enterprise entities, government guidance, and open integration will be formed. The foundation for the development of new industry standardization will be more consolidated, and the effectiveness of leading the high-quality development of new industries with standards will be fully demonstrated, providing strong support for the basic realization of new industrialization.

05 What are the key tasks of the “Implementation Plan”?

Based on the standardization needs of different stages of new industry development, the “Implementation Plan” decomposes and sets five main tasks to answer the questions of “what to do” and “how to do” in new industry standardization.

The first is to establish a system: improve the efficient and collaborative work system for new industry standardization, which mainly includes collaborative promotion of new industry development strategies, planning, policies, and standard implementation; collaborative promotion of standard development for various types of new industries; collaborative promotion of full life cycle management of new industry standards; collaborative promotion of construction of technical basic standards for new industries; collaborative promotion of construction and management of technical organizations for new industry standardization; and collaborative promotion of standardized and integrated development of large, medium, and small enterprises.

The second is to enhance capabilities: strengthen the ability to support the construction of the industrial scientific and technological innovation system with standards, improve the level of linkage between standards and industrial technological innovation, the level of transformation of advanced and applicable scientific and technological innovation achievements to standards, the quality level of standard development, and the efficiency level of standard development.

The third is to focus on emerging industries: comprehensively promote the construction of the standard system for emerging industries, clarify the key directions for the development of standards in 8 emerging industries including next-generation information technology, new energy, new materials, high-end equipment, new energy vehicles, green environmental protection, civil aviation, and ship and ocean engineering equipment, and refine and decompose the key points of standard development through special columns.

The fourth is to plan for the future: conduct forward-looking research on future industry standards, propose nine research directions for future industry standards, including metaverse, brain-computer interface, quantum information, humanoid robots, generative artificial intelligence, bio-manufacturing, future display, future networks, and new energy storage.

The fifth is to expand the space: expand the new space for the development of high-level international standardization, mainly through four measures: expanding the open standard system, accelerating the transformation of international standards, actively participating in international standardization activities, and promoting the construction of a good international standardization cooperation environment.

06 How to ensure the implementation of the “Implementation Plan”?

The “Implementation Plan” proposes five measures to ensure implementation.

The first is to strengthen organizational leadership and coordinate the implementation of various tasks.

The second is to increase resource input and promote the support for standard research in national science and technology programs and major industrialization projects.

The third is dynamic assessment and evaluation, strengthening dynamic monitoring and feedback on the implementation of the plan, summarizing and promoting new developments and achievements in the standardization of new industries.

The fourth is to improve the talent team, encourage standardization research institutions to cultivate and introduce high-end talents in standardization, and strengthen the construction of international standardization research institutions.

The fifth is to emphasize publicity and incentives, support units and individuals who have made outstanding contributions in the standardization of new industries to participate in the selection and commendation of national awards.