The Fourth World Intelligence Congress kicked off online Tuesday and will be end Wednesday in Tianjin.

The event, also called the WIC 2020, is an all-level platform that promotes the release of cutting-edge intelligent technologies and their applications.

A total of 148 investment projects worth 80.9 billion yuan ($11.4 billion) will be signed, including 17 foreign-funded projects, with $1.59 billion yuan, on Wednesday.

The projects cover new infrastructure construction, next generation information technology, high-tech services, new materials, new energy and high-end equipment manufacturing.

With the theme of Intelligent New Era: Innovation, Energization and Ecology, people can watch and participate in the forums and discussions attended by internet tycoons, experts and scholars.

To organize an attractive online exhibition, the event launched a weeklong online exhibition hall on its first day.

Complemented with pictures, text, video, or virtual reality pictures in live-broadcast rooms, the audience and exhibitors can realize real-time communication and complete transactions online.

Six online competitions focusing on smart driving, industrial innovation of apps, data processing and algorithms, and the application of intelligent technologies in security and sports games will be held during the session.

The Haihe Elite Entrepreneurship Competition is a new addition to the event. It is divided into three parts according to its participants: The public, college students and people overseas.

Focusing on emerging industries, modern agriculture, creative culture, livelihood services and social welfare, the competition is open to entrepreneurship teams or enterprises from home and abroad.

The organizer also provides online displays for smart cities, intelligent ports and intelligent factories, online concerts and intangible cultural heritage exhibitions to entertain audiences.

In the past three sessions of the congress, the event has seen 200 projects inked with an investment of 261 billion yuan.

The city's investment fund for intelligent manufacturing with 10 billion yuan launched in the past two years has significantly driven local companies' industrial upgrading.

"Tianjin has formed a complete industrial chain for intelligent manufacturing and one-fifth of the companies based in the city with major revenue standing above 20 million yuan are engaged in intelligent manufacturing," said Zhou Shengxi, chief economist at the Tianjin Industry and Information Technology Bureau.

The world's second largest cooling equipment maker, Denmark's Danfoss made China its "second home" and Tianjin as an economic engine to take off due to optimized industrial chains.

"We believe the company will sustain double-digit growth in China amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic this year and our intelligent manufacturing production benefits from locally-sourced, raw material providers in the city," said Shi Jun, vice-president of Danfoss China.

Better environment, network and ecology for companies ranging from chips, software, intelligent manufacturing and supercomputer are key for regional development for the artificial intelligence industries, said Liu Gang, chief economist at the China Institute of Next Generation Artificial Intelligence at Nankai University.

"Greater cluster for the companies, more integrated development among the AI technologies with local industries and strengthened innovation efforts are key for China to offset the impact brought by the technology barriers made by the United States," said Liu.

The congress is sponsored by the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Radio and Television Administration, the Cyberspace Administration of China, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Engineering, the China Association for Science and Technology and the Tianjin Municipal People's Government.

Nobel laureates, Turing Award winners, intelligent technology industry experts and scholars from home and abroad, as well as representatives of Fortune 500 companies and leading intelligent technology companies, will part in the conference.