China has barely rolled out 5G, and already the government is pushing for industrial use of the next-generation wireless technology amid a steady stream of directives aimed at overhauling the country’s manufacturing by mid-decade.

The latest mandate (link in Chinese), unveiled Friday by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), outlines steps for local governments to develop 5G-based “industrial internet,” specifically local area networks (LANs), in optimizing production.

It follows a blueprint (link in Chinese) released earlier this month by the National Development and Reform Commission, the country’s economic planner, which called for the integration of China’s services and manufacturing sectors as well as the strengthening of China’s “leading industrial enterprises.”

By 2022, the MIIT wants to see five “platforms” that will promote the creation of 5G-based industrial LANs, at least 20 large-scale, replicable scenarios where 5G industrial LANs are applied, 10 “key industries” for adoption of such technology, an entire category of 5G industrial internet service providers, and a research and development (R&D) and benchmarking alliance between industry, higher education and businesses, it said in a statement.

“The fusion of 5G and the industrial internet will bring manufacturing from single-point, local IT applications towards digitization and becoming connected and intelligent, while opening up a greater market for 5G,” the industry regulator said. “It supports the growth of a manufacturing and internet powerhouse.”

Specific technologies that the MIIT said needed accelerated R&D include telecom equipment ― 5G chips, modules and routers ― as well as industrial control systems, such as multi-access edge computing, programmable logic controllers and distributed control systems. The ministry also ordered local governments to study network setups, service deployments, spectrum allocations and information security practices of factories.

In recent months, China has released multiple industrial policies as part of its advanced manufacturing drive. Though they don’t cite the country’s ambitious and controversial “Made in China 2025” initiative, the directives are in line with the country’s goal of becoming a high-tech superpower by the quarter-century.

The U.S. government maintains that “Made in China 2025” encourages forced technology transfers from American companies to Chinese enterprises and cites the policy as part of the Trump administration’s justification for the ongoing trade war.

In late October, the MIIT announced plans to apply the sharing-economy model to factories to optimize resource allocation. Sharing-economy services such as ride hailing and home rentals are heavily reliant on modern internet infrastructure.

Contact reporter Dave Yin (davidyin@caixin.com)

Related: China Envisions ‘Shared Factories’ in Achieving ‘Made in China 2025’