The Shiguai district of the city of Baotou, Inner Mongolia autonomous region, now has China’s only Internet Plus cloud platform for manufacturing, as of Jan 20 as part of a pilot project for national improvements in the industry by combining it with the Internet.

The State Council announced the 10-year “Made in China 2025” plan, on May 19, 2015, whose goal is to change China from a manufacturing giant into a global power by combining manufacturing with big data, cloud computing, the Internet of Things and 3D printing.

To that end, Inner Mongolia has allotted some 15 million yuan ($2.3 million), while Baotou has provided 25 million yuan for facilities and began the process by setting up platforms for manufacturing, R&D, numerically controlled networking, business, CAE Cloud simulation, and big data applications, to provide an integrative service center for manufacturing development in the context of Internet Plus.