In October last year, the successful holding of the 2016 World Internet of Things Expo focused on the era's proposition of IoT development, exchanging results, sharing ideas, and planning for the future. It has accelerated the development of IoT and related industries in our province, forming an IoT industry pattern centered on Wuxi, supported by Suzhou and Nanjing, with a one body, two wings, and diversified development radiating across the province. In particular, the development of IoT in Wuxi has attracted global attention, becoming a mirror to observe the development of IoT in China and even the world. Here, I would like to review a few events related to IoT that have occurred in Wuxi over the past year.

   The first event, eight months ago, Jiangsu Province's first unified and open public cloud platform for IoT, OneNET, was officially launched in Wuxi. This platform can provide open and convenient cloud access, storage, and data presentation for various IoT applications, enabling rapid development and product incubation of IoT applications.

   The second event, four months ago, Wuxi became the first city in the country to achieve full coverage of NB-IoT (Narrowband IoT), making ubiquitous connectivity possible and providing access to massive terminals over a wide area, which will comprehensively support the R&D of IoT technology, product applications, and business expansion.

   The third event, by the end of last month, the number of IoT device connections in Wuxi exceeded the number of mobile phone users for the first time and continues to grow, quietly nurturing a huge IoT market.

   The fourth event, also last month, Xuelang Town was officially launched as a demonstration town for IoT, built in cooperation between Wuxi and Alibaba Group, focusing on creating a source of ideas for future development, a new industrial runway, and a new capital landscape. This town, located by the Taihu Lake, has become a 'sister town' with Hangzhou's Yunqi Town, jointly initiating a 'Awakening Plan' for traditional manufacturing and collaborating with Wuzhen in Zhejiang to create a 'New Economic Corridor' in the Yangtze River Delta. Yesterday afternoon, Hikvision Group announced its cooperation with Wuxi to build 'Smart Bay Town' in Wuxi New District, led by global-leading video processing and analysis technology, focusing on comprehensive perception and intelligent processing of IoT data to accelerate the development of the IoT industry.

   By listing the above events, I want to express that Wuxi, as the birthplace of IoT development in China, is increasingly becoming a hotbed for IoT development, creating new conditions and opportunities for the great development of the IoT industry. A year is just a brief moment in the long river of history, but the events that have occurred this year are indeed laying the foundation and accumulating energy for the arrival of the IoT era.

   Some have vividly described that the current development of the IoT industry is in a turbulent 'Warring States period'. With continuous breakthroughs in core technologies, accelerated improvement of basic support, and the gradual maturity of the industrial ecosystem, IoT has become a strategic choice for many countries to seize the high ground of development. Major tech giants have also begun to invest heavily and acquire, scrambling to layout the IoT industry ecosystem. The development of IoT is in a state of gestation and is about to burst forth, a new IoT era is on the horizon, ready to break out of its cocoon.

Regarding the upcoming great development of IoT, I have three basic judgments:

   First, as a new way of connection, the hundreds of billions of connections will inevitably give rise to a new generation of giant enterprises. Throughout the history of human society's informatization, every change in the way of connection has spawned a batch of giant enterprises. In the era of voice networks with billions of connections, companies like AT&T emerged with a scale of billions of dollars; in the era of PC/mobile internet with hundreds of billions of connections, companies like IBM, Microsoft, Google, and BAT emerged with scales of hundreds of billions of dollars; and IoT will achieve hundreds of billions of connections, which is a highly imaginative market and will certainly give birth to a new generation of giant enterprises. Some assert that such enterprises will emerge from powerful growth-oriented tech 'unicorns'; others predict they will come from innovative internet giants transforming. Who will become the leader? I believe that innovative companies concerned with and committed to IoT development all have opportunities, and everyone present has the potential to become a new leader in the IoT 'world'.

   Second, regardless of which field the development of IoT 'explodes' first, it will definitely carry distinct regional identifiers and marks. The development of IoT is on the eve of explosion, and we do not yet know which fields will explode first; everyone is guessing, some say it will be smart manufacturing, others say IoT finance, some say vehicle networking, etc. But I believe that no matter which field IoT breaks through, at least one thing is certain: it will definitely 'explode' first in a certain place and will become a unique identifier of that place. Just as when talking about internet development, people think of BAT and associate it with Beijing, Hangzhou, and Shenzhen. Of course, major breakthroughs in industries are never a matter of luck; where the IoT industry achieves breakthroughs must be related to the local sensitivity, forward-looking layout, and must have undergone relentless exploration, years of accumulation, and have a suitable ecosystem. Our Jiangsu Province, especially Wuxi, is striving to become such a place.

   Third, the large-scale application of IoT will inevitably accompany a new round of technological and industrial transformation, making cross-industry integration a major trend in industrial development. As a typical representative of the new generation of information and communication technology, the rapid development and application of IoT will integrate existing industrial fields and resource elements through mutual penetration, integration, or fission, connecting them together to extend or break through the industrial value chain, making industrial boundaries increasingly blurred, and the trend characteristics of cross-industry integration more prominent. From the current situation, intelligence, health, and environment are the three fields with the most advantages, the greatest demand, and the most likely breakthroughs in cross-industry integration, which correspond to the three basic aspects of human production, life, and ecology, having broad development prospects and huge development space. It can be said that IoT leads a new revolution in intelligent production, creates new spaces for smart living, spawns precision medicine, precision elderly care, and other undertakings, promotes the comprehensive development of security undertakings and industries, drives the world towards green and sustainable development, and ultimately creates a more comfortable and convenient life for humanity. The 'future life' that everyone expects will be realized with the support of IoT technology, and by then, in every corner you may not have noticed, there will be traces of IoT, as the saying goes: whether seen or unseen, it is there.

   Jules Verne, the father of science fiction, once predicted, 'Whatever one can imagine, someone will make it a reality.' Today, with the development of IoT technology, the 'future scenes' we saw in many science fiction movies like 'Elysium', 'Interstellar', and 'Back to the Future' are gradually becoming reality. Industrial robots are liberating our hands, smart cities will help us escape 'urban diseases', smart homes will make our lives more 'intelligent', and smart wearable devices will allow people to conveniently perceive external and personal information, while digital identities become our passports. Such examples are countless. The original intention of holding the World Internet of Things Expo is to build a large platform for the great development of IoT and the realization of 'future scenes', gathering the best elements in the global IoT field, leveraging various forces to promote technological progress and industrial development, and to accelerate the arrival of the IoT era. At the same time, this is also based on the resource endowments of Jiangsu, which has a foundation and advantages for the development of IoT, as well as great potential and hope. We are willing to provide a 'fertile soil' for the explosive development of IoT globally.

   First, encourage experimentation. The rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) industry requires not only a practical foundation but also ideological guidance; not only technological breakthroughs but also model innovation; not only a professional spirit but also social collaboration. This is a process of continuous trial and error. We are committed to providing a 'testing ground' for global IoT development and warmly welcome heavyweight enterprises from around the world to establish a presence in Jiangsu, as well as various IoT companies to innovate and start businesses in Jiangsu.

   Second, open up the market. The development of the IoT industry requires not only material and technological connections as a prerequisite but also the removal of various tangible and intangible barriers to further open up the market. We will continuously deepen government reform, improve service and regulatory levels, promote the free flow of factors, accelerate data openness and interconnectivity, advance the unification of various standards and protocols, and support and achieve interoperability and scalability across industries in the IoT field. We strive to transform from a closed-loop market to an open market, promoting the large-scale development of the IoT industry.

   Third, optimize the platform. The IoT industry is vast and fragmented, making it one of the industries that most needs an 'ecosystem.' We are committed to building a more open, collaborative, and shared industrial ecosystem, further improving four major categories of public service platforms: common technologies for IoT, industrialization, technical standards and testing certification, and promotion and exhibition. We will enhance the public service support system for resource sharing and complementary advantages, promote industrial clusters and talent aggregation, and provide a 'familiar ground' for IoT development, allowing technology research and development, product development, application promotion, and model innovation to find supportive platforms and quality partners in Jiangsu.