The first International Summit on Smart City Development opened in grand style on Oct 10 in Jinan, capital of Shandong province, gathering an elite group of guests from home and abroad to share their insights and experience on smart city development. 

Jointly organized by the Jinan municipal government, the China Center for Information Industry Development (CCID Group), the China Center for Urban Development of the National Development and Reform Commission and the Chinese IT giant Inspur Group, the summit, themed on "wisdom makes city more beautiful", focused on the fields of "e-government service, urban governance, people's livelihood and economic development", and held discussions on new smart city construction.

Scheduled with keynote speeches, high-level talks and forums, the summit invited nearly 1,000 distinguished guests from home and abroad, including government officials, academicians, representatives from countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative, 23 city delegations as well as representatives from more than 500 leading enterprises in the field of smart city construction. 

Wang Zhonglin, Party secretary of Jinan, said that Jinan has a good foundation to build a new smart city as it holds strong competitiveness in the fields of information technology, intelligent manufacturing and high-end equipment. 

The city's digital economy exceeded 250 billion yuan ($36.29 billion) last year, accounting for about 36 percent of Jinan's economic aggregate, Wang added.

Liu Qiang, vice governor of Shandong province, said that Shandong has strengthened its policies and measures to support pilot program of smart city construction, which has achieved initial achievements. 

He added that the summit would provide more theoretical support and practical experience for the province's new smart city construction work. 

The "Smart City of Springs" platform was also launched at the summit. It is part of Jinan's smart city solution which offers more public services locally, with main functions of dealing with transportation, government service, public safety, medical care, along with information about bus schedules and financial services online.

In recent years, Shandong has developed and introduced a series of policies and measures to promote the pilot work of smart city construction. At present, Shandong has 30 state-level smart city pilot projects, raking first in the country. All the prefecture-level cities and more than 70 percent of the county-level cities in Shandong have put forward the planning goal of smart city construction. 

The first International Summit on Smart City Development opens on Oct 10 in Jinan, capital of Shandong province. [Photo/ijntv.cn]

Wang Zhonglin, Party secretary of Jinan, delivers a speech at the opening ceremony of the first International Summit on Smart City Development in Jinan, capital of Shandong province, Oct 10. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The "Smart City of Springs" platform is launched at the opening ceremony of the first International Summit on Smart City Development on Oct 10 in Jinan, capital of Shandong province. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Sun Pishu, chairman of Inspur Group, delivers a speech at the opening ceremony of the first International Summit on Smart City Development in Jinan, capital of Shandong province, Oct 10. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]