Rumor: China to Announce 50 More 'Smart City' Trial Sites
National Business Daily, 6/18/13
China will complete initial review of a second batch of "smart city" trial sites in late June, and will release a list of roughly 50 new cities in the second half of 2013, an industry source said. The new trial sites, combined with the 90 sites announced at the start of 2013, will bring the total number of trial sites to 140.
All of China's first-tier cities and more than half of its second-tier cities have set "smart city" development targets. According to Wu Hequan, a fellow of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, "smart city" development efforts are divided into three stages: initial infrastructure construction, data-processing facility construction, and end-phase service platform construction, all involving the participation of telecom equipment manufacturers, systems integration enterprises, data aggregation and analysis enterprises, telecom operators, and data service enterprises. According to early projections, the "smart city" market will have a total value of more than RMB 700 bln during the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-2015).
Wang Yi, deputy director of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development's information center, said recently that a framework of smart city standards has been basically developed, and will provide the basis for the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's (MIIT) forthcoming "Guiding Views on Promoting the Healthy, Ordered Development of Chinese Smart Cities."
Editor's Note: For more background on this topic, please see "CDB, Housing Ministry to Invest RMB 80 Bln in Smart Cities" MD 2/05/13 issue.
Keywords: government policy Wang Yi Wu Hequan Chinese Academy of Engineering wireless MIIT NDRC 12th Five-Year Plan smart city