General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized the need to vigorously develop the real economy and consolidate a solid foundation for a modern economic system. The real economy is the foundation of a country's economy, the fundamental source of wealth creation, and an important pillar of national prosperity. The construction industry is the mainstay of the real economy, and its high-quality development is crucial to accelerating the improvement of the modern economic system. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the construction industry has firmly established the new development philosophy, accelerated its transformation toward industrialization, digitalization, and green development, and China has taken steady and powerful strides from a "major construction country" toward a "strong construction country."

Breakthrough and Innovation

From Extensive Development to High-Quality Development‍

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China's construction industry has continued to develop rapidly, with an ever-expanding industrial scale and continuously strengthening construction capacity, providing strong support for the sustained and healthy development of the national economy. However, for a long time, China's construction industry has relied on resource and factor input and large-scale investment to drive development, with relatively low levels of industrialization and informatization, and prominent problems such as extensive production methods, low labor efficiency, high energy and resource consumption, and insufficient scientific and technological innovation capacity. Accelerating the coordinated development of intelligent construction and building industrialization, integrating new technologies such as 5G (fifth-generation mobile communication technology), artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things, forming an intelligent construction industrial system that integrates the entire industrial chain covering scientific research, design, production and processing, construction and assembly, and operation and maintenance, and embarking on a new path of connotative and intensive high-quality development are new requirements for the development of the construction industry in the new era.

On this basis, in 2020, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, together with 12 departments, on the basis of in-depth investigation and research, extensive solicitation of opinions, and careful summary of experience, jointly issued the Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Coordinated Development of Intelligent Construction and Building Industrialization (hereinafter referred to as the Guiding Opinions). The Guiding Opinions clarified the guiding ideology, basic principles, development goals, key tasks, and safeguard measures for promoting the coordinated development of intelligent construction and building industrialization, and proposed that by 2035, the core competitiveness of "Built in China" should be world-leading, building industrialization should be fully realized, and China should rank among the world's strong countries in intelligent construction.

Intelligent construction is an engineering construction technology formed by the integration of the new generation of information technology with engineering construction, with artificial intelligence at its core. The issuance of the Guiding Opinions marked a new stage in the innovation of China's engineering construction technology. The product forms, business models, production methods, management models, and regulatory methods of the construction industry are being reshaped, new industries, new business forms, and new models are continuously being spawned, and cross-domain, all-round, and multi-level industrial deep integration application scenarios are constantly emerging.

In 2021, the Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives Through 2035 proposed "developing intelligent construction," listing the development of intelligent construction as an important part of promoting new urban construction and comprehensively improving urban quality for the first time at the national level.

Demonstration and Leadership

From Exploration to Large-Scale Application‍

Using drones for earthwork volume measurement, collecting terrain information with one click, and quickly calculating earthwork volume through self-developed intellectual property software, the measurement efficiency of the Changzhen Public Housing Project in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, is 40 times that of manual work, saving more than 20% in costs.

Using intelligent rebar tying robots to tie bay window rebar mesh cages, realizing functions such as automatic rebar clamping and structural erection, visual recognition, tracking, and positioning of rebar, and automated tying of rebar nodes, the tying efficiency of the Gemdale Juyuan Community Project in Jiading New City, Shanghai, is three times that of manual work.

Using artificial intelligence technology to assist construction drawing review and realize batch automatic review, the average review time for a single drawing in the Vanke Four Seasons Flower City Project in Chongqing is about 6 minutes, with an accuracy rate of more than 90%.

The construction industry has developed from the traditional workshop-style era of on-site mortar mixing and "dust-covered faces" to the era of building industrialization where "houses are built like cars," and is now striding toward the era of digital and intelligent construction, attracting great attention from all walks of life.

In 2021, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development issued the List of Replicable Experiences and Practices for the Coordinated Development of Intelligent Construction and New Building Industrialization (First Batch) (hereinafter referred to as the List), enumerating exploration achievements from various regions in six aspects: developing digital design, promoting intelligent production, advancing intelligent construction, building industrial internet platforms for construction, researching and applying intelligent construction equipment, and strengthening overall coordination and policy support. It sorted out and summarized 19 measures, comprehensively demonstrating the practices and breakthroughs of the construction industry in technological progress and technological innovation.

The List is both grounded in reality and oriented toward the future. It is a summary of experimental results after the implementation of the Guiding Opinions and has a "benchmark" effect. The active exploration by various regions in digital design, intelligent production, and intelligent construction has set benchmarks and established models for the construction industry, making it convenient for the entire industry to refer to, benchmark against, and learn from, boosting morale and firming up the direction of intelligent construction development. A large number of replicable and promotable experiences and practices have provided solutions to common problems encountered in promoting intelligent construction, greatly reducing the time for construction enterprises to explore on their own.

From "winning by quantity" to "winning by quality," from "extensive operation" to "refined management," and from "factor-driven" to "innovation-driven," the issuance of the List has enabled benchmark innovations to produce a replication effect and laid a solid foundation for accelerating the transformation and upgrading of the construction industry.‍

Pilot Leadership

From "Quick Steps" to "Accelerated Running"‍

General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that looking to the future, we must stand at the height of coordinating the overall strategy of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and the major changes unseen in the world in a century, coordinate the two overall situations at home and abroad and the two major tasks of development and security, fully leverage the advantages of massive data and rich application scenarios, promote the deep integration of digital technology and the real economy, empower the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, spawn new industries, new business forms, and new models, and continuously strengthen, optimize, and expand China's digital economy. Based on the new development stage, developing intelligent construction is an inevitable requirement for the housing and urban-rural development sector to implement the important instructions of General Secretary Xi Jinping on digital development, and it is of great significance for promoting the high-quality development of the construction industry.

As a complex systematic project, intelligent construction covers scientific research, design, production and processing, construction and assembly, operation, and other links, and requires overall planning and coordinated advancement. Among them, it is particularly crucial to increase efforts to tackle key basic and common technologies of industrial internet platforms for construction and cultivate a batch of industry-level, enterprise-level, and project-level platforms as well as government regulatory platforms. At the same time, policy support is also needed in terms of financial support, talent training, and promoting the establishment of a production system based on standardized components.

In order to further implement the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee and the State Council and vigorously develop intelligent construction, in 2021, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development released 124 typical cases of innovative services in five major categories, summarizing and promoting replicable experiences and practices in digital design, intelligent production, intelligent construction, industrial internet for construction, and construction robots, and guiding local housing and urban-rural development authorities and enterprises to fully understand and scientifically select intelligent construction technologies and products. In 2022, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development solicited and selected 24 cities including Beijing to carry out intelligent construction pilots, playing a demonstration and leading role in comprehensively promoting the transformation and upgrading of the construction industry and promoting high-quality development.

The pilots are supported by scientific and technological innovation, promote the deep integration of the construction industry and the digital economy, cultivate new industries, new business forms, and new models of intelligent construction, focus on solving prominent problems in engineering construction such as extensive production methods, labor shortages, and high resource and energy consumption, and better leverage the important supporting role of the construction industry in stabilizing growth and expanding domestic demand.

The pilot goals include three aspects: First, promote pilot cities to establish cross-departmental coordinated advancement mechanisms and form replicable and promotable intelligent construction policy systems, development paths, and regulatory models, providing experience and reference for the comprehensive promotion of intelligent construction. Second, accelerate the deep integration of the construction industry with advanced manufacturing technology and the new generation of information technology, realize digital control of the entire process of project quality, safety, progress, and cost, and promote quality and efficiency improvement in the construction industry. Third, build intelligent construction industrial clusters, spawn a batch of new industries, new business forms, and new models, and create new engines for local economic development.

The leap from the traditional construction industry to intelligent construction and building industrialization is essentially a substantial improvement in productivity. At present, developing intelligent construction has become the key for the construction industry to break through development bottlenecks, enhance core competitiveness, and achieve high-quality development. It has become an important measure to effectively boost domestic demand and a powerful lever for conforming to international trends and enhancing the core competitiveness of "Built in China."

The National Housing and Urban-Rural Development Work Conference held at the beginning of this year made "taking the industrialization, digitalization, and greening of the construction industry as the direction and continuously improving building quality" one of the important tasks, and proposed developing new construction methods such as intelligent construction and prefabricated buildings. With intelligent construction as support, on the new journey of striding toward Chinese-style modernization, the achievements of high-quality development in the construction industry will be even more impressive.‍