The Chinese city is collaborating with local vendor ZTE in a number of smart city initiatives
The city of Yinchuan, in China, is known to be the most advanced city in the Asian nation in terms of the development and implementation of smart city initiatives.
In February 2014, ZTEsoft, the software subsidiary of Chinese telecoms equipment manufacturer ZTE, signed an agreement with the Yinchuan government to invest $500 million on smart city initiatives. In December 2014, ZTEsoft also inked a contract with the local government and launched its smart city project in September 2015. Under the terms of the contract, 13 subsystems will be implemented during the course of three years featuring a unified top design, scientific architecture, innovative business model, an operation and maintenance (O&M) platform and rich application functionality.
The subsystems stipulated in the agreement are: smart transportation, smart surveillance, smart community, environmental protection, smart all-in-one card, smart tourism, enterprise cloud, smart government, big data analytics center, one cloud, operation center, GIS & 3D map and elastic network.
One of the key initiatives of the collaboration between the government of Yinchuan and the vendor is in the E-Government field. ZTE’s Smart E-Government solution for Yinchuan consists of three phases: process review and one-stop approval to provide reform benefits; data sharing and online approval to provide information benefits; and data collection, mining and analysis and virtual approval to provide big data benefits.
Another key project in the smart city collaboration agreement between the local government and ZTE is the big data center being deployed in the city of Yinchuan. ZTE said that this facility plays a strategic role in implementing the Internet+ action plan, building the Silk Road economic belt, and achieving the “Made in China 2025” development goal.
The Internet+ plan was unveiled by the Chinese government last year. The initiative stipulates to integrate the internet with traditional industries, in a move to foster economic growth. The government-sponsored program will help the manufacturing sector optimize manufacturing processes through technologies such as cloud computing and artificial intelligence, among others. Other sectors which would also benefit from this initiative include agriculture, energy production and distribution, finance, medical care, logistics, e-commerce, transportation and environmental protection.
The Yinchuan big data center will provide big data-based support and services for government affairs management, public services, economic development, gaming and banking, among other sectors.
The first phase of the big data center project requires an investment of CNY 300 million ($47.2 million) and stipulates the deployment of 1,000 cabinets that can carry 20,000 servers and provide a storage capacity of 1.1 EB.
The second phase of the initiative stipulates the deployment of 4,000 cabinets which will be able to carry 80,000 servers.
Also, the smart city project in Yinchuan stipulated the deployment of a security cloud platform including 30,000 integrated cameras. A portion of this consists of advanced HD cameras with smart analysis functions to ensure the security of the city and its residents.
ZTEsoft has been working on the execution of smart city projects for the last five years. ZTE has been involved in more than 150 smart city projects across China, the company’s CIO and chairman of ZTESoft Chen Jie, previously said. The executive said that most of the projects are related to the implementation of smart metering, smart lighting, and smart parking solutions for municipal and regional governments.
The company has been involved in smart city projects in Laos, Sri Lanka, France, Romania, Turkey, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Sudan, Chile, Venezuela and Uruguay, among other countries. The vendor also said that it is seeing increasing business opportunities in smart city projects in certain Asian markets such as India, where the local government is seeking to develop a nationwide smart city program.
