In order to implement the Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement signed between the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) and the Hubei Provincial People’s Government, and promote the construction of Wuhan as a pilot smart city for the project, as well as enhance the sound and rapid development of the economic and social development of Hubei Province, the Fourth Working Meeting for Advisory Project “Study on China’s Smart City Construction and Promotion Strategy” was held in Wuhan on May 16, 2013. 

The meeting was presided over by Pan Yunhe, Executive Vice President of the CAE, also the Project Leader, Mao Guanglie, Vice Governor of Zhejiang Province, also the Deputy Project Team Leader, and CAE Member Liu Yunjie, also the Deputy Project Team Leader alternatively. Nearly 200 people attended the meeting, including 11 CAE Members on the project team, relevant experts on the project team, representatives from “typical cities”, as well as officials and representatives from relevant government organs in Hubei Province and Wuhan City. 

Huang Guoxiong, Deputy Secretary-General of the Hubei Provincial People’s Government, Xing Zaozhong, Vice Mayor of Wuhan City, together with Han Jin, Secretary General of the Wuhan University delivered speeches respectively, briefing the attendees of the meeting the general status of intelligent industry development of Wuhan City as well as Hubei Province. Afterwards, CAE Members and experts such as Wang Zhongtuo, Zou Deci, Yu Yixin, Li Guojie, Liu Yunjie, Wu Cheng and Ning Jinsheng made presentations on behalf of 12 sub-teams of the project, reporting on initial research achievements. Also, the draft version for the general report on advisory project “Study on China’s Smart City Construction and Promotion Strategy” was presented for discussion and comments. 

In the end, Executive Vice President Pan Yunhe made the concluding remarks. He pointed out that, as China had reached a critical moment in the process of its industrialization, informatization, urbanization and agricultural modernization, whether smart city construction could be taken as a major strategy for the realization of the sound and rapid development of the nation, and for the realization of the “Chinese Dream”, should be elaborated on in our project reports. 

Pan also said that, at present, there had been huge enthusiasm for the construction of smart cities all over China. Yet, different cities should aim at different objectives. There should be distinctions among all newly built smart cities. And the criteria for smart city studies should not be unified either. Whether it be a big city, a small one or a small town, an intelligent and flexible development road should be explored and followed according to its own industrial characteristics, and that would be seen as a real scientific development road. 

Pan also briefed the participants on plans for the next stage. That is, the Fifth Plenary Meeting would be held in August, during which all sub-forums should make presentations on their respective reports, with innovative ideas being highlighted. 

On the morning of May 17th, participating CAE Members and experts conducted field studies on the construction of smart city in Wuhan. They inspected the Wuhan National Education Cloud Platform, pilot projects for the Wuhan Geographic Space Cloud Information Platform, as well as the Two-Dimensional Code Food Quality and Safety Traceability Scheme applied in Zhongbai Supermarket, etc. 

On the afternoon of the same day, they participated in an advisory and discussion meeting with representatives from the Wuhan People’s Government, in which they, by combining their own specialized knowledge, answered questions and made suggestions as to the construction and development of the smart city of Wuhan. (By Fan Guimei and Chen Bingyu, June 2013; translated by Liu Chang)