CHANGSHA, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- Team members sit in the office and operate the remote control. A few kilometers away, an unmanned excavator is undergoing simulation tests. A large screen in the office shows the simulated operation from different angles.

This is a scene at a plant of Sunward Intelligent Equipment Co., Ltd., headquartered in central China's city of Changsha. Established in 1999, the company has grown into one of the world's top 50 construction machinery manufacturing enterprises, with its products exported to more than 100 countries and regions.

The combination of unmanned driving technology and excavators makes it possible to carry out construction work in more complex and dangerous environments, said Zhu Jianxin, vice general manager of Sunward.

"Electric, intelligent and energy-saving technologies are the goals we focus on," Zhu said, adding the company has developed a series of high-end equipment products with independent intellectual property rights and core competitiveness. In late August, it debuted an all-electric large excavator.

As China has shifted to a high-quality development model amid further opening up, intelligent manufacturing has been a key driver for achieving shared and sustainable growth.

In Changsha, capital of Hunan Province, more than 1,000 companies have participated in smart manufacturing transformation programs in recent years.

"We focus on smart equipment, vehicles and terminals as well as chips, strengthen digital empowerment, and promote cluster development," said Kang Xiaoping, director of the Changsha municipal industry and information technology bureau.

On Aug. 25, a ship-to-shore container crane of Sany Heavy Industry Co., Ltd., a leading heavy equipment manufacturer in China, was inaugurated at the Freeport of Riga, Latvia.

Sany's high-end container equipment has significantly increased the capacity of the Baltic Container Terminal, which will actively participate in the Belt and Road construction and work with the Chinese side to jointly promote the development of the Freeport of Riga as a regional transit and logistics hub, according to Freeport of Riga CEO Ansis Zeltins.

In the first half of this year, Sany raked in an operating income of about 49.2 billion yuan (about 7.28 billion U.S. dollars), up 13.37 percent year on year, with better-than-expected overseas market performance. Net profit attributable to its shareholders hit 8.47 billion yuan, up 25.48 percent year on year, according to its financial report.

The value-added output of China's digital economy reached 35.8 trillion yuan in 2019, accounting for 36.2 percent of GDP, a report released by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology showed.

A raft of major international fairs held across China this month have also highlighted the latest developments and growing momentum of intelligent manufacturing.

Nearly 500 new technologies and products were displayed at the 22nd China International Industry Fair held from Sept. 15 to 19 in Shanghai, with the theme of "Intelligence & Interconnection, Empowering New Industrial Development."

Early this month, the Committee for the Promotion of Industrial Internet was established to promote the wider, deeper and higher-level integration of industries and information technology at the 2020 China International Fair for Trade in Services in Beijing.

At the 2020 Smart China Expo Online in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, which closed on Thursday, 71 projects with a total contracted investment of 271.2 billion yuan were signed at an online promotion event for key projects.

"Indeed, smart technologies are vital for the inclusive and sustainable future we want," said Liu Zhenmin, UN under-secretary-general for economic and social affairs, while addressing the opening ceremony of the smart expo via video link.

"The era of intelligence belongs to the whole world," said Wang Zhijun, China's vice minister of industry and information technology, at the expo in Chongqing. "We welcome global smart enterprises to invest in China and share the world's largest consumer market and technology application market."