Shanghai wins title of world's 'smartest city'

Shanghai won the honorable title of the world's "smartest city" at the 2020 Smart City Expo World Congress (SCEWC) held in the city on Nov 18, becoming the first city in China to receive the honor, according to a news report.

The World Smart City Awards are presented annually by SCEWC to promote diversity, inclusiveness, equality, safety, and collaboration.

As China’s largest economic hub,  Shanghai attaches great importance to the leading role of digitalization, networking and intelligence in urban development. In recent years, the city has launched several e-government systems and continuously improved its urban governance system in an effort to better meet the public's expectations for the management of government affairs.

Efforts have been made to bolster Shanghai's digital and online economies, with its output value of new-generation information technology registering a 8.4 percent year-on-year growth in the first three quarters of the year.

At present, Shanghai has 31,400 5G outdoor base stations and 49,800 5G indoor small stations.

Mao Huidong, CEO of the SCEWC, said that the award is a comprehensive demonstration of the effectiveness and achievements of Shanghai's smart city construction in recent years.

Mao also spoke highly of the important role of some enterprises, such as China Unicom, Huawei and China Electronics Technology Group Corp, and how they have contributed to Shanghai's smart city construction.