China looking ahead to a smarter future

Visitors take pictures of robots dancing on a platform at the 16th China High-Tech Fair in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, on Monday. The fair has showcased many companies that could play a key role in the future development of smart cities in China. [Photo / Agencies]

China's move to promote the development of smart cities has opened up a huge market for the country's high-tech enterprises, and forced many to rethink their business plans.

"The construction of smart cities involves not only government authorities, but also various types of enterprises that are now helping provide high-tech solutions for their future development," said Du Ping, chief executive and president of the State Information Center.

Du said that city governments have been urged to introduce services from the third parties during the construction of smart city facilities.

"A growing number of major information technology companies have become involved in providing solutions for urban management."

According to the International Data Group, China's investment in smart city construction will reach 2 trillion yuan ($326.7 billion) over the next decade. Around 300 cities have been involved in pilot programs so far, said Du.

The State Council, China's cabinet, together with several ministerial-level departments, issued a series of guidances in August to boost development of smart cities amid the country's ongoing drive for urbanization, meaning a rich vein of opportunities for high-tech companies, including traditional hardware product makers such as global information technology giant, Lenovo Group Ltd.

Tong Fuyao, vice-president of Lenovo, which claims around 20 percent of the world's PC market share, said its future growth is inextricably linked to big data service and Internet solutions, which play an integral role in smart city construction.

"Mobile and enterprise businesses have become our new growth engines and over time, like PCs, they will become our profit pool as well," said Tong.

Lenovo has built up various leading global businesses, he said, based on mobile and enterprise devices which had laid the groundwork for it to rapidly accelerate its ecosystem and cloud service business.

Strong evidence of the shift toward smart cities can be seen at the ongoing China High-Tech Fair, the largest technology show in China which opened on Sunday in Shenzhen, Guangdong province.