Shanghai targets lead in smart-city development

Shanghai vowed to retain its advantage in smart-city development in China and will try to become a leading player in the sector in the manner of New York, London and Tokyo, a city official said on Friday.

Liu Jian, deputy director of the Shanghai Commission of Economy and Informatization, said the city will focus on the development of satellite navigation, integrated circuits, cloud computing, next generation networks, the Internet of things and other sectors to build Shanghai up as a smart city.

A concept originally coined by IBM, smart city refers to cities of the future where computing technology will be utilized to improve efficiency of infrastructure and public services.

Liu, speaking at Friday's China Smart City Industrial Development Forum, a key event at 15th China International Industry Fair, said the volume of Shanghai's IT industry has reached 1.28 trillion yuan ($210 billion) so far this year.