More than 1,000 company heads, experts at leading Chinese manufacturing enterprises and government officials are attending the 2022 New-Gen Manufacturing Conference, which kicked off in Wuxi, Jiangsu province, on Saturday.

Zhao Jianjun, deputy Party secretary and mayor of Wuxi, said in a speech at the opening ceremony that the conference is a milestone in the city's effort to make a digital transformation.

"The innovative exploration and achievements that Xuelang town made in the past five years have proved once again that the digital transformation is unstoppable, and that Wuxi's intelligent manufacturing is powerful," Zhao said.

Xuelang, with an area of 35,000 square kilometers, was co-founded by the Wuxi government and Alibaba Group in 2017 with the intent to accelerate the integration of manufacturing and internet by combining investment capital, platforms and technologies while promoting mutual development.

During the main summit of the conference, the much-anticipated Xuelang Computing Power Center, which attracted more than 100 enterprises, was officially launched.

"The enterprises in Xuelang provide services to virtually every province in China today," said Wang Jian, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, founder of Alibaba Cloud and honorary head of Xuelang. "This came from the joint efforts of all the enterprises and also represents the innovative ability of the town."

"The town will no doubt become a microcosm of the innovation and development with Chinese characteristics in the future," he added.

At the conference, 85 projects valued at 15.1 billion yuan ($2.1 billion) have been signed. They cover key industries such as industrial internet, artificial intelligence, new energy, intelligent manufacturing and integrated circuits.

Another 28 letters intent for cooperation valued at 8.1 billion yuan were exchanged.

The conference concluded on Monday.