China making headway in intelligent connected vehicle development

China has made significant advancements in the development of intelligent connected vehicles, according to expert at the 2024 World Intelligent Connected Vehicles (ICV) Conference.

At the opening ceremony of the conference on Thursday, Minister of Industry and Information Technology Jin Zhuanglong said that China has established a complete ICV industrial system covering foundational chips, sensors, computing platforms, chassis control and internet-based cloud control.

He said that China's technologies like human-machine interaction are in a leading position globally, while breakthroughs in steer-by-wire and active suspension systems are gathering pace.

"Infrastructure development is speeding up. Over 50 cities nationwide are conducting road testing demonstrations for ICVs, with 32,000 kilometers of testing roads opened and approximately 10,000 kilometers of roads undergoing intelligent upgrades, along with the installation of over 8,700 roadside units," said Jin.

He also emphasized that China has nurtured nearly 400 "little giant" enterprises that apply special and sophisticated technologies to produce unique and novel products in the ICV sector, with five lidar companies ranking in the global top 10.

Furthermore, international cooperation continues to deepen, as China has cooperated with Europe, Japan, and the United States to develop multiple regulations for autonomous driving, he said.

Jin said that advancements in computing power, big data and large models are expected to lead to significant breakthroughs in advanced autonomous driving technology, ushering in a new development stage for ICVs.

Jin outlined four areas to promote the industry's new development. First, in integrated innovation, the country will focus on next-generation electronic and electrical architecture, high-performance chips, domain controllers and super-intelligent systems to foster integration among vehicles, smart grids, intelligent transportation and smart cities.

Second, China will expand application scenarios with pilot projects for integrated vehicle-road-cloud computing applications in logistics, public transport, taxis and environmental sanitation, he said.

"Third, we will improve standards and regulations, revising traffic safety and insurance laws, establishing and improving a regulatory framework for high-level autonomous driving and accelerating the formulation of standards for functional safety, cybersecurity, and data security," he said.

Jin said that within the framework of the International Organization for Standardization, China will also strengthen cooperation on standards and regulations with various countries, and explore policies to facilitate cross-border data flow.

China making headway in intelligent connected vehicle development

China's zero-tariff policy toward Africa is expected to boost the continent's industrialization and bring benefits to multiple sectors, said Selma Ashipala-Musavyi, Namibia's Minister of International Relations and Trade.

In an exclusive interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN), Ashipala‑Musavyi said the sweeping tariff measure will accelerate Africa’s industrialization and open new opportunities across trade, services, and tourism.

"The benefits of the gesture from China is going to generate industrialization. We are going to begin to add more value to what we are exporting to China. I think a lot of businesspeople are going to be coming to China and see what are the needs. So, tourism will also benefit and vice versa in terms of transportation, will benefit, services will benefit, people to people will benefit. So, because we see trade as a peace building measure also. We don't just want to trade, we also want to have a better understanding among people. The whole collective will actually benefit from this gesture and we hope that other countries can do the same," she said.

Effective since May 1, the policy grants zero‑tariff access to all 53 African countries with diplomatic ties to China, making Beijing the first major economy to extend such comprehensive treatment.

At the invitation of President Xi Jinping, Namibian President Netumbo Nandi‑Ndaitwah is paying a state visit to China from July 5 to 11.

On Thursday in Beijing, she met Premier Li Qiang, who called Namibia an important African partner and pledged to carry forward traditional friendship, support each other’s core interests, and expand mutually beneficial cooperation to advance modernization.

Nandi‑Ndaitwah said Namibia values China’s global role and is ready to deepen multilateral coordination to promote regional peace, stability and development.

China's zero-tariff policy spurs Africa's industrialization: Namibian minister