200 representatives from City authorities around the world descended on Yinchuan, in the independent economic area of Ningxia in China, to put a stake in the ground for Smart City development. This was the TM Forum’s inaugural Smart City forum. Sponsored by the City of Yinchuan, its forward-thinking secretary and ZTE Soft, the event was to establish a base line of where we are on the much hyped journey to Smart cities. The notion of One Map, One Network and One Cloud was the theme of the opening comments from the Yinchuan dignitaries.
Yinchuan, a City of some 2 million people, has taken an aggressive approach to turning itself into a new Smart City hub for the region. By the way, this is where Genghis Kahn reached before being defeated! The centralised Citizen Hall demonstrates how they are transforming the delivery of citizens’ services: