ABB Group of Switzerland said it plans to enhance its business presence in Chongqing and support the development of the robotics industry in China's western regions, by stepping up smart manufacturing and driving an industrial upgrade.

On May 17, a new ABB robotics application center was set up in Chongqing Liangjiang New Area, a national development zone modeled after Shanghai Pudong and Tianjin Binhai.

ABB's Chongqing center, the fourth one after the centers in Shanghai, Zhuhai in Guangdong province and Qingdao in Shandong province, aims to integrate resources in Southwest China by providing robots, application, system integration and related customer service.

The center will develop robots for its clients from various industries, including automobiles, computers, communications, consumer electronics, equipment and consumer goods manufacturing.

"Chongqing plays a critical role in China's economy, especially in manufacturing," said Li Gang, head of the Robotics and Motion Division at ABB China, at the launch ceremony.

"Chongqing and its neighboring regions provide ABB with a large market for robotics application and I hope this center will help strengthen our relationship with local clients."

China has been the world's largest market for robot applications since 2013, according to data from the International Federation of Robotics.

As the only municipality in western China, the city is one of the country's leading economic centers and a major manufacturing base. It has the country's largest auto manufacturing base and one third of the laptops in the world are made in Chongqing.

Facing a shortage of labor and rising labor costs, China unveiled an ambitious plan in 2016 to triple its annual production of domestic industrial robots to 100,000 in five years.

ABB Group, the Zurich-headquartered industry giant, has been a pioneer promoting robotics applications in China since 1994. In 2015, it started robotics research, development and manufacturing in China.

"ABB's relationship with China dates back to 1907 when it delivered a steam boiler to the country. Today, we continue this relationship with our technology innovation, which has promoted the development of many industries," said GuChunyuan, ABB's president for Asia, Middle East and Africa.

"In the past four decades, ABB has experienced, participated in and benefited from China's reform and opening-up. In the future, we will keep leading technology innovation to better serve Chinese people."