The World Internet of Things Wuxi Summit kicks off in Wuxi, East China's Jiangsu province, on Oct 23. [Photo/wiotexpo.cn]

The World Internet of Things Wuxi Summit, a trend-setter for the IoT industry, kicked off in Wuxi, East China's Jiangsu province, on Oct 23.

The summit has invited elites from the global IoT industry to discuss cutting-edge technologies, applications and future trends of the industry, aiming to improve the IoT industrial ecology in Wuxi and promote the collaborative innovation and development of the IoT industry around the world.

A total of 20 projects were signed at the summit, covering areas such as artificial intelligence, IoT, integrated circuits, advanced manufacturing, industrial internet, and deep-sea equipment.

Officials said these newly signed projects will help promote the industrial transformation and upgrading of Wuxi and further improved the quality and efficiency of the city's industrial development.

Industrial insiders and experts, including Wu Hequan, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Josef Kittler, a British scientist and an academician at the Royal Academy of Engineering, Meng Pu, chairman of Qualcomm China, Zhou Jiong, deputy president of JD Group, and Zhang Lei, founder and CEO of Envision, delivered speeches on the future of IoT and 5G technology.

Students are interested in the interactive study system displayed at the IoT applications and products exhbition of the World IoT Expo in Wuxi on Oct 23. [Photo/wiotexpo.cn]

Wuxi, the only national sensor network innovation demonstration zone in China, has seen its IoT industry valued over 300 billion yuan ($47 billion) so far. The city is home to more than 3,000 IoT companies specializing in chips, sensors, and communications to undertake 23 major national application demonstration projects.

As a world-famous landmark in the IoT economy, the city has held the World IoT Expo for six years since 2016.

This year's expo, running from Oct 22 to 25, includes a main summit, an exhibition on IoT applications and products, an award ceremony for outstanding new technologies, products and applications related to IoT, 10 sub-forums and 13 related activities.