Hosted by SIC and IDG Exhibition Group, the 2023 China Smart City Development and Innovation Summit (hereinafter referred to as the Summit) was held in Shenzhen on November 16th, 2023 during the China Hi-Tech Fair period. Xu Qiang, President of SIC attended and addressed the Summit.

The report to the 20th National Congress of the CPC called for efforts to accelerate the building of a network power and digital China. According to the Guideline of Overall Layout of the Country's Digital Development (referred to as the Guideline) which was released in February 2023, building a digital China is an important engine for the advancement of Chinese modernization in the digital era, and a solid support for the build-up of new competitive advantages. Accelerating the building of digital China has exerted great significance and far-reaching influence on building China into a great country in all aspects and advancing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts.

Under the theme of “Digital Transformation Stimulating New Urban Vitality”, Xu Qiang put forward four points of understanding:

Firstly, we should have a profound understanding of new trends, new challenges and new requirements in building new-style smart city. The Guideline stressed the integration, systematicness and coordination in building the digital China should be fully improved to transform the means of production, living and governance driven by digitalization, which put forward newer and higher requirements in new smart city building. We should focus on the digital transformation by taking digital technology innovation as the driving force and digital infrastructure and data resource system as the foundation to enhance digital capacity building and digitalized services. We have to fully unleash the value of data element, making digital development more coordinated and adequate in the fields of economy, politics, culture, society and ecological civilization, to continuously solve practical issues in urban governance, and to constantly improve urban governance capacity and the modernization of system for governance, therefore, to strongly support building a modern socialist country in all respects.

Secondly, we should fully release the value of data elements to expand new space for economic development. General Secretary Xi Jinping noted that “we will build digital economy with data as a key element” “to expand new space for economic development with supporting greater development of digital economy”. A  document named Opinions on building data fundamental institutional system so as to give full play to the role of data elements was released in December of 2022, unveiling the launch of data element institutions. It indicates that China's data element market has entered into a formal stage of orderly and regulated exploration from the stage of disorderly and spontaneous exploration. It is a must in the construction of new smart cities to conform to the development trend of the digital era by actively adapting to the changes and requirements of the new normal of economic development, cultivating new growth engines and enhancing new growth drivers to promote the full integration of data elements and various industrial scenarios, and nurture new business forms and models by giving full play to the amplifying, overlying and multiplying effects of data elements on economic development. We will build a new development pattern and new ecology for digital economy to promote the digital economy to better serve and integrate into the new development pattern.

Thirdly, we should make large-scale AI models as a new engine for the high-quality development of new smart cities. As the hub of new infrastructure, the new smart city is a key leverage for governments at all levels to develop digital economy. The rapid development of smart technology, especially large-scale models, has injected new impetus into new smart city building. Now large-scale AI models have been experimentally applied to many fields such as "urban governance" and "government services", and has achieved substantial results. At the same time, we should grasp the development characteristics of digitalization, networking and intelligent in new smart city building, and explore an application path of new technologies, new forms of business and new models vigorously, thus achieving efficient urban governance, high-quality development and quality life to make it a powerful engine to accelerate high-quality economic and social development.

Fourthly, we should innovate smart city applications for the modernization of urban governance as new measures. Given the complex and ever-changing social governance issues and increasingly diverse public service demands, we must spare no effort to promote the building of new smart cities and new urban infrastructure. We must carry on in-depth urban data governance to achieve effective integration and return of government and social data so as to improve the accuracy and effectiveness of governance. At the same time, we should innovate smart city applications, giving full play to the driving role of scenarios to realize "pooling wisdom to achieve governance by all". We should form a collaborative governance model among governments, enterprises, industries and society, so as to bring smarter governance, safer operation and better life in urban area, thus to strengthen people's sense of fulfillment, happiness and security to lay a solid foundation for the modernization of governance system and capacity.