A press conference of First New Smart City Development Summit (hereinafter referred to as the Summit) was held in Beijing on August 1st. Xu Changming, Vice President of the State Information Center (SIC), Shan Zhiguang, Director-General of the Informatization and Industry Development Department of SIC, Ma Yuenan, Deputy Secretary-General of Shandong Provincial People's Government and Director-General of Shandong Provincial Big Data Bureau, Geng Tao, Deputy Mayor of Qingdao Municipal People's Government, and Lian Kai, Deputy Director-General of Shandong Provincial Big Data Bureau, were present in the conference.

Xu Changming introduced the preparation of the Summit on behalf of the organizing committee. He pointed out that the development of new smart cities is prioritized by the Party Central Committee and the State Council. Furthermore, the Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan has proposed more detailed work requirements for building smart city and digital countryside. It was announced in the press conference that the Summit would be held in Qingdao on November, with the purpose of summarizing China's experiences in new smart city development, promoting technical exchanges, and building a consensus The Summit will be jointly hosted by the SIC, the Shandong Provincial Big Data Bureau, and the Qingdao Municipal People's Government.

Xu Changming said that the Summit would follow the theme of “diversified cities, empowered brands, comprehensive exploration, and smart future” and would establish "three platforms", including the platform for showcasing latest achievements on China's new smart city construction; the platform for exchanging experiences and theories in the fields of digital government, digital society, digital economy, and digital infrastructure; and the cooperation platform that attracting global forces for the new smart city development in China.

Additionally, the Summit will set up one main forum and four sub-forums themed respectively as "Digital Government", "Digital Society", "Digital Economy", and "Digital Infrastructure" through which a series of new smart city achievements released.Furthermore, a national competition will be held on the Summit in order to select optimal solutions for new smart city development.

The sign-up for First New Smart City Innovation Competition will begin in this month. Participants may sign up online via the Summit's official website (www.cnnscc.cn) and submit relevant data through a standard form. For more details, please visit the official website.