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Beijing E-Town Builds an Internationally Leading Demonstration City for Embodied Intelligent Robot Industry

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robot industry

BEIJING, CHINA – Media OutReach Newswire – 28 August 2024 – As a pioneer in high-quality development for the new era, Beijing E-Town (BDA) is seizing the opportunity to lead the development of the embodied intelligent robot industry. The plan is to build a domestically leading and internationally first-class demonstration city for the embodied intelligent robot industry in two steps.

“By the end of 2026, we aim to achieve full coverage of over ten interactive service application scenarios, attract more than 100 innovative enterprises, gather over 1,000 high-end talents, and reach a mass production capacity of 10,000 embodied intelligent robots. By 2030, we plan to create an embodied intelligent robot innovation ecosystem characterized by ‘full-chain layout, full-stack autonomy, and comprehensive empowerment,’ establishing Beijing as a strategic base, a technological origin, an application demonstration, and a main industrial hub for embodied intelligent robots in China,” stated Kong Lei, Deputy Secretary of the Party Working Committee and Director of the Administrative Committee of the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area (BDA), during the main forum on “Industrial Development” at the World Robot Conference 2024 (WRC 2024) on August 22.

To achieve the development goals of the demonstration city, Beijing E-Town will implement the “Five Priorities” plan. In terms of advancing key technologies, Beijing E-Town will focus on critical areas such as the “brain,” “cerebellum,” and “limbs” of embodied intelligent robots. It will support key enterprises in strengthening collaborative research on disruptive and leading technologies, accelerate the construction of an innovative industrial technology system, and seize the high ground in embodied intelligent robot technology.

To this end, Beijing E-Town will create an internationally competitive embodied intelligent “brain,” supporting robot companies in collaboration with AI enterprises to conduct research on key technologies of general-purpose large models in the field of embodied intelligent robots. It aims to develop an AI-based general-purpose model that integrates perception, decision-making, and control, achieving internationally advanced levels in task decomposition, execution task quantity, parameter quantity, and robot task capabilities.

Simultaneously, it will develop a globally leading motion control “cerebellum,” accelerate the development of full-body dynamics control algorithms for embodied intelligent robots, continuously improve the control accuracy of high-dynamic walking, and focus on breakthroughs in key technologies such as dynamic arm grasping, agile operations, and full-body coordinated motion control. Furthermore, it will expedite breakthroughs in integrated hardware-software visual technology.

Additionally, the initiative will deepen the systematic layout of critical “machine limbs,” engage in specialized R&D on high-strength, high-integration bodies, lightweight skeletons, high-precision sensors, and more to achieve internationally leading performance parameters. It will focus on critical components like high-performance dedicated chips, servo motors, and reducers to accelerate core technology breakthroughs, continuously improve the technical innovation system, build an efficient collaborative joint research mechanism, and encourage leading enterprises to form innovative consortia, leading upstream and downstream institutions in collaborative research.

Regarding core product advancements, Beijing E-Town will prioritize key products such as whole machines, core components, and software systems, accelerating the industrialization breakthrough of several essential foundational products, and constructing a three-dimensional product matrix of “whole-zero coordination” and “software-hardware integration.” In April this year, the general-purpose humanoid robot platform “Tiangong” was launched in Beijing E-Town, achieving the world’s first humanoid running with a full-sized pure electric humanoid robot.

Continuing to lead the industry, Beijing E-Town aims to develop high-performance whole machine products, establish the world’s first general-purpose embodied intelligent robot “hardware mother platform” and the first multi-capability embodied intelligent “software mother platform.” It will focus on typical fields such as 3C electronics manufacturing and new energy vehicle production, encouraging leading enterprises to develop low-cost interactive, high-precision, and high-reliability embodied intelligent robot whole machine products for extreme environments.

Moreover, it will guide enterprises in focusing on key components such as dedicated sensors, high power density actuators, controllers, and dedicated chips. Additionally, leveraging the leading role of the innovation highland in the information technology application innovation industry, it will develop a specialized operating system for embodied intelligent robots, and expedite the industrialization breakthrough of several essential foundational products.

From innovative achievements to practical implementation, application scenarios have always been a strong suit of Beijing E-Town. At the Xiaomi automobile factory, over 700 robots serve on the production line, and the country’s first certified AI catering robot has been deployed on the streets; the waterjet surgical robot won the 2024 World Intellectual Property Organization Global Award… “Robotics+” has become the norm here.

Moving forward, Beijing E-Town will advance the “first in application scenarios” strategy, leveraging its strong manufacturing base and diverse industrial application scenarios. It will explore the establishment of a composite layout for embodied intelligent robot applications in urban and industrial settings, take the lead in opening a batch of innovative application scenarios, continuously promote the matching of supply and demand in these scenarios, create a permanent robot exhibition hall, and build a city-level engineering test field. By increasing incentives for first-time applications and solutions, Beijing E-Town aims to provide strong support for the rapid deployment of “embodied intelligent robot+” application scenarios.

The area will precisely identify the needs of various fields such as manufacturing, livelihood, special equipment, and more, conducting application demonstrations in “embodied intelligent robots + industry,” “embodied intelligent robots + elderly care,” “embodied intelligent robots + emergency response,” “embodied intelligent robots + education and entertainment,” and “embodied intelligent robots + specialized fields.”

In terms of “leading” in the corporate hierarchy, Beijing E-Town will focus on nurturing leading enterprises in the embodied intelligent robot industry, supporting a group of companies that play a leading role in the embodied intelligent robot industry chain. It will gather leading enterprises with core technologies and independent intellectual property rights and cultivate innovative small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), promoting the integrated development of large, medium, and small enterprises and fostering the growth of embodied intelligent robot companies.

Beijing E-Town will also implement an “industry ecosystem pioneering” plan, closely aligning with the entire development needs of the industry chain, enhancing data, platforms, services, and capital resources, and continuously creating an environment that attracts talent from near and far. The goal is to build the largest and most information-dense open-source embodied intelligent dataset in the industry, a phased open-source sharing model, and a “rainforest-style” full-industry-chain ecosystem for embodied intelligent robots characterized by “resource coordination, element aggregation, and innovative collaboration.”

Kong Lei explained that, as the permanent venue for the World Robot Conference, Beijing E-Town has established the “Five Ones” working mechanism: “one park, a batch of platforms, one center, one fund, and a group of talents,” to accelerate the construction of a national hub for the robotics industry.

At last year’s World Robot Conference, Beijing E-Town released a three-year action plan for high-quality development of the robotics industry. Guided by this plan, Beijing E-Town has accelerated the aggregation of innovative elements, significantly improved innovation capabilities, fully released innovative vitality, and continuously strengthened innovation entities.

To date, it has more than 100 robot ecosystem enterprises, over half of which are specialized and innovative enterprises, with a total output value of nearly 10 billion yuan, accounting for 50% of the city’s robotics industry. It has achieved independent control over key components such as precision reducers and high-performance servo starters and made innovative breakthroughs in products like specialized intelligent drilling machines.

Particularly in the embodied intelligent robot industry, Beijing E-Town has focused on building high-energy innovation platforms represented by the Beijing Embodied Intelligence Robot Innovation Center and has established leading companies such as UBTECH, along with key component companies like Chietcom, Tsino-Dynatron, and Lingzu Times, essentially forming a complete embodied intelligent robot industry chain that covers core components, main bodies, and applications.

Kong Lei stated that as the main hub for high-end industries in Beijing, Beijing E-Town has established the “44637” development framework, which includes four national strategies as its guidance (focused on building a national highland for the integrated circuit industry, continuously creating the world’s first high-level autonomous driving demonstration zone, constructing a high-quality national information technology application innovation base, and establishing the country’s first data infrastructure pilot zone at a high standard). It also consolidates and strengthens four leading industries (new-generation information technology, new energy and intelligent connected vehicles, biotechnology and big health, robotics and intelligent manufacturing), comprehensively deploys six future industries (future information, future health, future manufacturing, future energy, future materials, and future space), enhances three integration empowerments (digital-physical integration, industrial-financial integration, and cultural-scientific integration), and builds seven support systems (industrial organization, innovation cultivation, resource guarantee, talent services, open collaboration, urban vitality, and party leadership).

Moving forward, Beijing E-Town will consistently adhere to the principle that “what the country needs is what E-Town will do, what enterprises need is what E-Town will facilitate, and what talent needs is what E-Town will provide.” With a more open stance, more precise policies, more efficient services, higher-quality ecosystems, and a more sustainable environment, Beijing E-Town aims to provide comprehensive, full-process, and all-element support for talent investment, business development, and enterprise innovation.

Energy

SBM Offshore Confirmed as Silver Sponsor for African Energy Week (AEW) 2026 Amid Africa FPSO Expansion Push

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African Energy Chamber

SBM Offshore will participate as Silver Sponsor at African Energy Week 2026, where they are set to showcase FPSO expansion in Angola, Namibia and Guyana amid strong financials and a deepwater innovation strategy

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, June 9, 2026/APO Group/ –Multinational oil and gas services company SBM Offshore will participate at this year’s African Energy Week (AEW) 2026 Conference and Exhibition as a Silver Sponsor, reinforcing the company’s long-term commitment to Africa’s expanding deepwater oil and gas industry. Their participation comes as SBM Offshore accelerates brownfield optimization projects in Angola while aggressively positioning itself for new frontier developments in Namibia’s Orange Basin.

 

SBM Offshore’s return to AEW, which takes place from October 12–16 in Cape Town, is expected to draw significant industry attention as operators, financiers and EPC contractors evaluate the next wave of floating production infrastructure across the Atlantic Basin. With more than 20 years of experience in Africa and over $31 billion in contract backlog globally, the company remains one of the world’s most influential FPSO suppliers.

The Sponsorship follows several major milestones announced during 2025 and 2026. On May 26, the American Bureau of Shipping approved SBM Offshore’s seawater intake riser technology developed alongside Shell. The system pumps cold seawater from depths of 700m to FPSO topsides, reducing onboard cooling energy demand and improving emissions performance for future African and South American projects.

The company’s financial position strengthened considerably following the $2.32 billion sale of FPSO One Guyana to ExxonMobil in February 2026. The transaction helped drive a 216% year-on-year increase in Q1 2026 directional revenue to $3.5 billion while reducing SBM Offshore’s net debt from $5.7 billion to $3.2 billion by March 21, 2026.

SBM Offshore continues to demonstrate the technical expertise, operational scale and long-term investment approach needed to advance Africa’s next generation of energy projects

In March 2026, ExxonMobil awarded SBM Offshore front-end engineering and design contracts for the Longtail development in Guyana. The proposed FPSO is expected to feature the world’s highest gas-handling capacity ever deployed on a floating production vessel, processing 1.2 billion cubic feet of gas and 250,000 barrels of condensate daily.

Across Africa, SBM Offshore continues expanding its offshore footprint. In Angola, the company signed multi-year extensions in December 2025 with Esso Exploration Angola for FPSO Mondo and FPSO Saxi Batuque in Block 15, extending operations through 2032. Brownfield upgrades and life-extension works commenced in early 2026 to support declining reservoir pressure management and maintain environmental compliance standards.

The company also finalized a share purchase agreement with Equatorial Guinea’s national oil company GEPetrol in December 2025, restructuring regional asset ownership and supporting localized operational transitions. The FPSO Aseng formally exited SBM Offshore’s lease-and-operate fleet during the same period as management responsibilities shifted toward Equatoguinean entities.

Namibia retains a central focus of SBM Offshore’s African growth strategy. The company is actively competing for TotalEnergies’ Venus FPSO contract in the Orange Basin, one of Africa’s largest recent offshore discoveries with estimated resources of roughly 2 billion barrels. SBM Offshore has expanded its Cape Town commercial engineering workforce while positioning its standardized technologies for upcoming South Atlantic developments.

“SBM Offshore’s participation at this year’s event reflects the growing momentum behind Africa’s deepwater industry and the critical role FPSO technology will play in unlocking new production. From Angola’s mature offshore hubs to Namibia’s frontier discoveries, SBM Offshore continues to demonstrate the technical expertise, operational scale and long-term investment approach needed to advance Africa’s next generation of energy projects,” says NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman, African Energy Chamber.

Looking ahead, SBM Offshore aims to combine frontier expansion with lower-emission offshore production systems. Through partnerships with SLB and Cognite, the company is integrating industrial AI platforms to its global fleet while scaling standardized hull construction to accelerate project delivery timelines across Africa and Latin America.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Energy Chamber.

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Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa Joins African Energy Week (AEW) 2026 as South Africa Opens R400B Grid Expansion to Private Investment

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Kgosientsho Ramokgopa

South Africa has moved from rolling blackouts to a year of stable supply, and Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa now turns to the grid expansion and market reforms needed to keep the lights on and draw private capital

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, June 9, 2026/APO Group/ –Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, Minister of Electricity and Energy of the Republic of South Africa, has been confirmed as a featured speaker at African Energy Week (AEW) 2026, where he is expected to outline the next phase of the country’s power-sector recovery and the investment drive needed to expand the electricity grid.

 

Taking place October 12-16, AEW 2026 represents the largest energy gathering on the African continent, offering a strategic platform for dealmaking and partnerships. Minister Ramokgopa’s participation reflects the country’s ambitions to strengthen investment flows across the power and energy markets, supporting long-term generation resilience and improved transmission networks.

South Africa has moved from one of the worst phases of its electricity crisis to its most stable supply in years. The country recently passed a full year without load-shedding, and the grid is at its strongest in half a decade, with roughly 4,400 MW more generation on hand than a year earlier. The return of Kusile Power Station to its full output of about 4,800 MW helped anchor the turnaround.

South Africa’s recovery shows what disciplined execution can achieve, and opening the grid to private capital is the logical next step

With supply stabilized, Ramokgopa has reframed the current market challenge as being less about generation and more to do with transmission, offtakers and bottlenecks, pointing to more than 130 GW of generation projects that have yet to secure firm offtake agreements. That bottleneck sits at the center of the country’s largest infrastructure push. The Transmission Development Plan calls for 14,000 km of new power lines and 105 substations by 2030, at a cost of roughly R400 billion, to unlock an additional 22.5 GW of capacity.

Because neither Eskom nor the state can fund that build alone, the government has opened transmission to private investment for the first time through the Independent Transmission Projects (ITP) program. In December 2025, Ramokgopa named seven prequalified bidders for the first phase, all of them international-led consortia. The phase covers 1,164 km of high-voltage lines across seven corridors, with a combined value of about $1 billion. A request for proposals is expected in the second half of 2026.

“South Africa’s recovery shows what disciplined execution can achieve, and opening the grid to private capital is the logical next step,” says NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman of the African Energy Chamber. “The real opportunity now is in transmission, and the investors who help build that network will open up generation that will change South Africa’s future for the better.”

Private appetite is already evident on the generation side. The latest round of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Program drew 10.2 GW of bids against the 5 GW on offer. In the 2025/26 financial year, eight new independent power projects came online with a combined 800 MW, and another 1,610 MW is under construction.

Minister Ramokgopa is also expected to address the Integrated Resource Plan 2025, the government’s blueprint guiding new generation capacity, and the rollout of a competitive wholesale electricity market intended to open the sector beyond Eskom.

As AEW 2026 prepares to convene policymakers, investors and operators at the Cape Town International Convention Center this October, Minister Ramokgopa’s participation is the host nation’s signal that its power sector is open for investment.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Energy Chamber.

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Carbon Markets Africa Summit (CMAS) 2026 programme launched as Africa’s carbon markets move from readiness to delivery

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CMAS

Positioned as a pan-African marketplace, CMAS connects policy, project pipelines, capital and buyers in a structured environment focused on enabling real deal flow

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, June 9, 2026/APO Group/ –Africa is emerging as an exciting destination to develop carbon market projects with improved policy certainty and more and more projects becoming investment-ready. As global carbon markets transition from rule-setting to real transactions, with Article 6 mechanisms moving into implementation and compliance-driven demand such as CORSIA accelerating, attention is shifting towards where credible supply, policy certainty and investment-ready projects can be delivered at scale.

 

Against this backdrop, the Carbon Markets Africa Summit (CMAS) that is organised by VUKA Group has released its official 2026 programme, outlining how Africa’s carbon markets can move beyond frameworks into execution, investment and transactions. The summit will take place from 13–15 October 2026 in Kigali, Rwanda, hosted by the Ministry of Environment of Rwanda, with UNDP and the African Development Bank (AfDB) as host organisations, the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) as host partner, and AUDA-NEPAD as the strategic institutional partner.

Positioned as a pan-African marketplace, CMAS connects policy, project pipelines, capital and buyers in a structured environment focused on enabling real deal flow.

This year’s programme reflects a changing market dynamic, one where integrity, quality and transaction readiness are becoming decisive.

Carbon markets are entering a more selective and operational phase. The question is no longer whether Africa has a role to play, but whether the continent can bring forward credible projects, enabling frameworks and market infrastructure to transact at scale,” said Emmanuelle Nicholls, Project Lead. “CMAS 2026 is designed as a response to that moment – connecting the actors, pipelines and capital needed to move from ambition to execution.”

Africa’s carbon markets must be built on integrity, equity, and continental coordination so that carbon finance delivers real value

Within this evolving context, the summit places strong emphasis on the foundations required to scale markets responsibly. As Estherine Fotabong, Director at AUDA-NEPAD, notes, “Africa’s carbon markets must be built on integrity, equity, and continental coordination so that carbon finance delivers real value for communities, ecosystems, and sustainable development across the continent.”

A programme built for execution

The CMAS 2026 programme spans the full carbon market value chain from policy and Article 6 implementation to project development, finance and transactions. Key highlights include the keynote opening session on delivering projects, capital and transactions at scale, a high-level dialogue on trust and market readiness, ministerial and technical roundtables, and sessions focused on buyer demand, investor priorities and deal structuring.

 

A central feature is a curated pipeline of African carbon projects across nature-based solutions, regenerative agriculture, carbon removals, waste-to-value and blue carbon, presented through project showcases, case studies and investment-ready deal rooms.

The programme also includes solution labs and technical workshops addressing critical bottlenecks—including Article 6 and CORSIA implementation, early-stage finance, MRV systems and project bankability, alongside live demonstrations of digital carbon infrastructure, ensuring focus on practical market development and delivery.

CMAS 2026 is hosted in Rwanda, a country advancing carbon market frameworks under Article 6, and takes place at a pivotal moment as global markets increasingly prioritise integrity, quality and real delivery at scale.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of VUKA Group.

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