The second China Software Innovation and Development Conference takes place in Wuhan on June 14. [Photo/WeChat account of Optics Valley of China]

On June 14, the second China Software Innovation and Development Conference was held in the East Lake High-tech Development Zone (also known as Optics Valley of China, or OVC), Wuhan, Central China's Hubei province. The conference, titled Empowering New Industrialization with Software, Cultivating New Quality Productive Forces with Digital Intelligence, focused on foundational software, industrial software, open source ecosystem cultivation, and AI innovation applications.

Over 60 academicians, experts, leading enterprises, and government representatives delivered speeches, sharing the latest policies, cutting-edge technological achievements, and practical application cases of China's software industry. The event attracted more than 800 guests from the software sector across the country.

The industry and information technology departments of six provincial capital cities in Central China – Wuhan, Zhengzhou, Taiyuan, Hefei, Changsha, and Nanchang – jointly initiated the "Initiative to Promote the Rise of New Quality Productive Forces in Central China's Software Industry". The Hubei Industrial Software Industry Innovation Alliance and the Wuhan industrial software innovation consortium were inaugurated as well.

A signing ceremony is held at the conference. [Photo/WeChat account of Optics Valley of China]

Agreements for eight school-enterprise cooperation projects and 24 industrial investment projects were signed on-site, including five key software industrial chain projects to be established in OVC.

The software industry in OVC currently accounts for over 60 percent of the city's total, with more than 1,000 software companies gathered in the valley. The region boasts significant strengths in the foundational software, industrial software, embedded software, geospatial information, and internet+ sectors.

Academician Chen Shiyi of the Chinese Academy of Sciences stated that domestic industrial software faces tremendous development opportunities. For example, research and design software such as CAE, EDA, CAD, and PRM significantly shorten product development cycles and costs through simulation technology, having a profound impact on industries like aerospace, automotive, and semiconductors.