UNESCO SCIENCE REPORT

UNESCO SCIENCE REPORT
Figure 23.1: Trends in GDP per capita and GDP growth in China, 2003–2014
12 000
11 000
GDP per capita in constant 2011 PPP $
GDP growth rate
12.7
14.2
11 290
12 609
16.0
14.0
10 550
GDP per capita in constant 2011 PPP $
10 000
9 000
8 000
7 000
10.0 10.1
11.3
6 997
9.6
7 624
9.2
8 274
10.5
9 080
9 862
9.3
7.7 7.7
7.4
12.0
10.0
8.0
6.0
GDP growth rate (%)
6 000
6 167
4.0
5 000
4 976
5 506
2.0
4 547
4 000
2003
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
0.0
Source: World Bank’s World Development Indicators, March 2015
Box 23.1: China’s smart cities
The ‘smart city’ takes its origin from
the concept of ‘smart planet’ created
by IBM. Today, the term ‘smart cities’
refers to futuristic urban centres where
the use of information technology and
data analysis improves infrastructure
and public services so as to engage
more effectively and actively with
citizens. The development of smart
cities takes advantage of synergic
innovation around existing technologies
cutting across many industries –
transportation and utility infrastructure,
telecommunications and wireless
networks, electronic equipment
and software applications, as well
as emerging technologies such as
ubiquitous computing (or the internet of
things), cloud computing and ‘big data’
analytics. In a word, smart cities represent
a new trend of industrialization,
urbanization and informatization.
China is embracing the idea of
smart cities to tackle challenges in
government services, transportation,
energy, environment, health care, public
safety, food safety and logistics.
The Twelfth Five-Year Plan (2011−2015)
specifically calls for the development
of smart city technologies to be
encouraged, thus stimulating the
initiation of programmes and industrial
alliances, such as the:
n China Strategic Alliance of Smart City
Industrial Technology Innovation,
managed by the Ministry of Science
and Technology (MoST) since 2012;
n China Smart City Industry Alliance,
managed by the Ministry of Industry
and Information Technology (MoIIT)
since 2013; and the
n Smart City Development Alliance,
managed by the National
Development and Reform
Commission (NDRC) since 2014.
The most far-reaching effort has been
led by the Ministry of Housing and Urban
and Rural Development (MoHURD). By
2013, it had selected 193 cities and
economic development zones to be
official smart city pilot sites. The pilot cities
are eligible for funding from a RMB 1 billion
(US$ 16 billion) investment fund
sponsored by the China Development
Bank. In 2014, MoIIT also announced a
RMB 50 billion fund to invest in smart city
research and projects. Investment from
local government and private sources
has also been growing fast. It is
estimated that total investment over the
Twelfth Five-Year Plan period will reach
some RMB 1.6 trillion (US$ 256 billion).
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