"In the age of Industry 4.0, we must continue to strengthen international cooperation, especially with countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)," said Zhang Feng, chief engineer at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, at the 2019 China International Industrial Internet Innovation and Development Conference in Xiamen, Fujian province, on Saturday.

The industrial internet-focused event was attended by more than 800 people from home and abroad, including Peter Sachsenmeier, a German scholar and a professor at Oxford University who described BRI as a two-way street that encourages cooperation between China and other countries.

"China should work to strengthen its relationship with the rest of the world," said Sachsenmeier.

Eyeing future development possibilities, he also encouraged China to focus on pre-competition cooperation by setting up independent research centers overseas which are to cover cutting-edge fields such as biotechnology, artificial intelligence (AI), and data analytics technology.

Tan Jianrong, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, stressed that professional personnel are key to industrial development. In terms of AI, Tan urged China to focus on its core algorithms rather than just AI application in diversified fields.

Industrial internet, relying on massive data acquisition and analytic systems, can more closely connect people, machines and manufacturing sites and better integrate design, R&D and management.