Published by ChinaMNC · Dangxiong

World Intelligent Manufacturing Conference 2026 in Nanjing: What Foreign Founders Should Know

A practical briefing for foreign founders on the 2026 World Intelligent Manufacturing Conference in Nanjing, Jiangsu, covering dates, hosts, agenda and the industrial ecosystem signals relevant to setting up or operating a company in China.

Why This Conference Matters to Foreign Founders

China's manufacturing upgrade is not just a policy slogan — it is a market signal. For foreign founders weighing company registration in China, choosing a city, or connecting with industrial buyers and partners, the 2026 World Intelligent Manufacturing Conference is one of the clearest windows into where provincial and national priorities are heading. The event has been approved by the State Council and will run from November 19 to 21 in Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu Province. It is jointly hosted by the Jiangsu Provincial People's Government and the International Intelligent Manufacturing Alliance.

The details below are drawn from the official provincial government announcement and are intended as orientation, not as an endorsement or investment recommendation.

What the Agenda Looks Like

According to Gui Jun, Deputy Secretary-General of the Jiangsu Provincial People's Government, who spoke at the conference's press briefing on October 27, the program is structured in layers rather than as a single track.

• One theme conference as the anchor event.
• More than 10 specialized activities covering focused topics.
• Nearly 30 industry ecosystem conferences running alongside the main program.

Together these form a multi-level system that combines high-end forums, results announcements, frontier technology displays, and industry matchmaking. For a foreign founder, the practical value lies less in the plenary sessions and more in the ecosystem conferences and matchmaking channels, where suppliers, integrators, and buyers tend to meet.

What Will Be Released and Displayed

The conference will publish a set of outputs that indicate what Chinese industry and policymakers currently consider leading practice:

• Results from the construction of leading-tier smart factories.
• The 2026 top ten global and top ten Chinese intelligent manufacturing science and technology advances.
• A series of research reports from the National Intelligent Manufacturing Expert Committee.

On the exhibition side, the organizers say a range of innovations will be shown together, including leading-tier and excellence-tier smart factories, industrial datasets, large-model algorithms, and industrial world model generators. The stated aim is to illustrate how the new generation of intelligent manufacturing is moving from theoretical exploration into practical deployment. For founders in industrial software, automation, sensors, or AI tooling, this is a useful map of the technology categories that Chinese industrial buyers are currently being encouraged to adopt.

The Jiangsu Base Behind the Event

The conference is not staged in a vacuum. The official announcement grounds it in Jiangsu's existing industrial base, and these figures are worth noting because they describe the scale of the local market a foreign founder would be entering:

• 28,000 enterprises in the province have opened up industrial scenarios.
• 27 national typical cases of artificial intelligence application.
• Diagnostic transformation services provided to more than 19,000 enterprises.

Translated into practical terms, Jiangsu is presenting itself as a province with a large pool of manufacturers that have already exposed real production scenarios to technology providers, plus a substantial installed base of firms that have undergone digital transformation assessments. For a foreign company selling industrial technology, that combination — open scenarios plus assessed buyers — is often more relevant than headline GDP figures.

Who Will Be in the Room

The conference will convene academicians, experts, and industry leaders for in-depth exchange on four themes:

• Iterative upgrading of smart factories.
• Technical breakthroughs in key equipment.
• Deployment of domain-specific large models.
• Capacity building for service providers.

The stated approach is to confront the real pain points enterprises face in digital transformation and to distill technical solutions and implementation models that can be replicated and promoted, offering a reference for the national "AI + manufacturing" agenda. For foreign founders, the emphasis on service provider capacity building is particularly notable: it signals official interest in the intermediary layer — integrators, consultancies, and solution providers — that foreign technology firms typically need in order to reach Chinese factory floors.

An International Dimension

The organizers will set up a dedicated international specially invited exhibition area, drawing concentrated participation from overseas enterprises including companies from Germany and Switzerland. The stated purpose is to strengthen a physical vehicle for international exchange and cooperation.

For a foreign founder, this is the most directly relevant part of the program. It suggests a designated space where foreign firms can present technology to a Chinese industrial audience without navigating the entire exhibition ecosystem alone. It also indicates that German and Swiss industrial technology firms are expected to be visible, which may be useful context when planning positioning or partnership conversations.

Practical Takeaways for Founders

Based on the announced program, a few pragmatic points follow.

Timing and Location

The event runs November 19 to 21 in Nanjing. Founders already exploring Jiangsu as a registration or operating base may find it efficient to combine attendance with site visits to industrial parks or prospective partners in the province.

Where to Focus

The specialized activities and roughly 30 ecosystem conferences are likely to be more productive for business development than the main theme conference. The published results — smart factory benchmarks and the top ten advances lists — are also useful reference material for understanding how Chinese buyers benchmark solutions.

What the Event Does Not Provide

The announcement does not describe any visa, registration, or investment facilitation measures for foreign attendees. Founders should treat the conference as a market-intelligence and networking opportunity, and handle company registration, tax, and compliance matters through separate professional channels.

Reading the Signal

The combination of open industrial scenarios, transformation diagnostics, and a national expert committee publishing research suggests that China's intelligent manufacturing push is increasingly oriented toward deployment and replication rather than pilot projects. Foreign founders with proven, deployable technology may find a receptive audience — but the announcement offers no guarantees about procurement, partnership, or market access outcomes.

This summary is based on information published by the relevant Chinese government website and is general information, not legal or tax advice.