Experts, scholars and big names from leading institutions and enterprises in the field of smart city construction gathered at the main session of the 2020 Asia-Pacific Smart City Development Forum that opened Thursday at the Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center, to share their wisdom and exchange views on the topic of a new round of smart city construction driven by new infrastructure and the digital economy.
The two-day forum, which is jointly hosted by the State Information Center and IDG Asia, is inviting more than 100 guests to discuss new thinking, new solutions and new models of smart cities at its parallel sessions.
The first keynote speaker Shan Zhiguang, director of the Information and Industrial Development Department of the State Information Center, shared his observations on the new developments in the construction of smart cities. Shan believes that new developments in smart cities have triggered a changing social structure, in which blockchain is the new relations of production, big data the new means of production, artificial intelligence (AI) the new productivity, cloud computing the new production tool and such communication networks as Internet, Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G constitute the new production environment in the digital era.
Shan also pointed out that the quality of smart city construction is determined by how the modern information technology and urban management system complement each other. “There are no smart cities, only smarter cities. The construction of smart cities should be constantly evolving and requires smooth flow and public sharing of data resources as well as a rational, transparent and efficient governance structure, public services and industrial layout,” Shan said.
Ice Wang, vice president of Huawei Enterprise BG Global Government Business Department and president of the Smart City Solution Department, offered his suggestions on the planning of smart cities.
Wang said that in the initial planning of smart cities, the cities, districts and counties should work together and plan as a whole. In terms of data, Wang noted that in the future we should rapidly connect to data and utilize it, instead of simply pooling data. Wang also said that a sustainable operating system should be built to target users and improve user experiences.
Zhao Zhenggang, vice president of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence, introduced Alibaba’s “City Brain” which is based on the latest cloud computing, big data, IoT, and AI technologies to build an open and comprehensive operating platform that supports the digital transformation of the economy, society, and government. According to Zhao, the “City Brain” integrates data in various fields for development and utilization and can be used as the infrastructure of a new type of digital city in the future.
Zhao also mentioned that society and governments should upgrade consumption, industries and governance and make them their ultimate goals so as to fully utilize new digital infrastructure.
Coinciding with the forum, the 22nd CHTF China Smart City Expo is being held in Hall 6 of the Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center and will run through Sunday. Under the theme of “Smart Future Linkages,” the Smart City Exhibition is presenting technologies and products in such areas as urban planning and management, communication and information technology, big data and cloud computing, IoT, mobile applications, smart hardware and AI.