The 9th International Conference on Industrial and Business Engineering (ICIBE 2023) &（ North - International Conference on the Cooperation and Integration of Industry, Education, Research, and Application） was held at NCUT from September 23rd to 24th, 2023. ICIBE 2023 was organized by the School of Economics and Management at our university, with Professor Jiang Guihuang serving as the conference chair and Associate Professor Wang Xinyu as the main session moderator.

Vice President Wang Jianwen delivered a welcome speech at the opening ceremony of the conference. He warmly welcomed experts and scholars from both home and broad and introduced the educational and research development, as well as its internationalization efforts of our university. He expressed his hope that ICIBE 2023 &（North - International Conference on the Cooperation and Integration of Industry, Education, Research, and Application ）would provide a platform for experts and scholars in the field of industrial and business engineering to showcase their latest research achievements, exchange experiences, and establish research collaborations. Jiang Guihuang, Vice Dean of the School of Economics and Management at NCUT, delivered a speech at the conference. He introduced the international exchange and cooperation of the School of Economics and Management, research focuses, and the conference theme. He encouraged participants to actively engage and share their experiences.

The conference consisted of two sections. The first section focused on keynote speeches. Discussions was around the forum theme “Economic Management Theory and Practice in the Context of Digitalization." Professor Dong Xiaoying from Peking University, Professor Lonny Simonian from California Polytechnic State University, Professor Chen Xu from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, and Associate Professor Bogdan Wierzbinski from University Of Rzeszów delivered innovative and leading keynote speeches, sharing insights on digital transformation, labor force changes, capacity sharing, and cutting-edge research in the field of the network economy. Additionally, Associate Professor Assadej from Mahidol University and Associate Professor Jin Guangying from Dalian Maritime University delivered online invited speeches the following day, sharing their research on lean healthcare and port enterprises.

The second section of the conference consisted of academic paper presentations. Over 80 academic papers were collected from universities and research institutions in China, Indonesia, Peru, Thailand, the Philippines, the United Kingdom, Botswana, and other countries. The conference featured six offline thematic sessions and three online thematic sessions. Participants discussed and exchanged ideas on various topics, including “Financial Markets and Econometric Modeling," "Industrial Economy Development and Business Management," "Enterprise Digital Transformation and Business Informatization," "Digital Governance, Intelligent Manufacturing, and Intelligent Equipment Management," "E-Commerce, Digital Marketing, and Computation Models for Business Analytics," "Digital Economy and High-Quality Urban Development," "E-Commerce, Business Informatization, and Intelligent Information Technology Applications," "Lean Production and Applied Modeling in Operations Research and Business," and "Education 4.0, Digital Transformation, and Business Management." Experts provided detailed feedback on the novelty of the topics, the scientific rigor of the research methods, the innovative contributions to the field, and the adherence to academic standards in paper presentation. The conference organizing committee also awarded the Best Oral Presentation prize. The accepted academic papers will be published in the ACM International Conference Proceedings and indexed in both EI Compendex and Scopus.

The conference adopted a combination of offline and online formats, providing more opportunities for our university to expand international cooperation, broaden students' international perspectives, and promote academic exchanges. Under the careful design and organization of the organizers, the conference facilitated in-depth discussions among domestic and international experts and scholars on topics such as enterprise digital transformation, business informatization, digital economy, digital governance, and intelligent manufacturing. The academic presentations and exchanges were splendid, with new viewpoints, methods, and achievements emerging continuously. It was unanimously agreed that the conference led the academic frontier, offered rich and diverse activities, and had significant value in improving the level of academic research and promoting the high-quality development of research projects. Overall, it was a highly successful academic conference.