China looking ahead to a smarter future

Lenovo is displaying a series of smart solutions and services, targeting government, medical treatment, education, finance, public transportation, enterprises and television and communication.

This year's event, which runs until Friday, has attracted more than 100 government and business delegations and about 3,000 exhibitors from 50 countries and regions.

It even has a dedicated "smart city pavilion" where domestic and overseas companies are displaying their latest solutions and services aimed specifically at smart city development.

Enterprise, mobile and cloud service businesses, key elements in smart city construction, made up 15 percent of Lenovo's total revenue in the first two quarters, up from 4 percent three years ago. Its enterprise business, which saw the launch of a new lineup of next generation ThinkServer products in September, grew rapidly with a 35 percent year-on-year increase, according to Tong.

ZTE Corp, one of China's major listed telecommunications equipment and network solution providers, is also focused squarely on developing smart solutions.

"We are building a big data platform which allows partners, including government agencies and enterprises, to share and develop smart solutions," according to Xu Ming, its vice-president.

Smart solutions will help better tackle the most pressing problems including air pollution and traffic jams, Xu said.

ZTE has developed a series of solutions for smart city development and has already been working with local governments to develop future facilities.

Last week, the Shenzhen-based company signed a cooperation agreement on the construction of an intelligent industrial park in the Nantong Economic and Technological Development Area in Jiangsu province.

Xu said that based on smart city construction, the project will create a string of sites featuring industrial clusters, smart applications, data processing backstage services and 4G network research and development.