According to the Bureau of Science and Information Technology of Guangzhou, in order to effectively ease “city disease”, Guangzhou plans to spend five years building a “smart city” framework. It is planned that by 2020 a smart Guangzhou system will take shape, leading the country in terms of intelligent urbanisation.

According to informed sources, Guangzhou has already adopted the “smart city” strategy in many areas in a bid to solve acute problems such as traffic congestion, environmental pollution and social order.

The Guangzhou science and information technology bureau pointed out that at present Guangzhou has already started smart management in a move to build a “peaceful city”. A total of 268,000 surveillance cameras have been installed in public areas including various streets and railway stations in Guangzhou. At the same time, pattern identification, smart warning and virtual patrol systems are used to maintain public order so as to increase the people’s sense of security.

In addition, such devices as radio frequency identification, sensors, GPS, video monitors and handheld terminals are used to collect real time city management information with an aim to establish a “smart city management” model.

To ease traffic pressure and road congestion, Guangzhou is also building sensor facilities collecting real time traffic information; popularising the application of smart technology such as sensor, electronic identification, GPS, traffic simulation, social computing and parallel control; as well as enhancing the expediency of road networks and coordinating “man, car and road”.

“Smart city” building has become the latest direction leading the future development of Chinese cities. At present, in addition to Guangzhou, other cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Ningbo, Nanjing and Shenzhen have also mapped out similar development plans.

During the 11^th Five-Year Programme (FYP) period (2006-2010), Guangzhou’s information development index was 0.946, reaching the level of moderately developed countries. Guangzhou plans to implement the following information technology infrastructure projects in five years: Broadband Guangzhou, International Cloud Computing Center, very large urban database, and smart control centre. The objective is to achieve intelligent management by automatic sensing and inter-networking. At the same time, efforts will be made to develop intelligent industries, build an online business capital, and enhance the capability of Guangzhou’s e-commerce, logistics and finance.