China Unicom and the Qingdao government signed a wide-ranging strategic cooperation agreement on Nov 2, as the two sides look to transform Qingdao into a smart city.

China Unicom and the Qingdao government sign a strategic cooperation agreement on Nov 2 to jointly build Qingdao into a smart city. [Photo/cww.net.cn]

According to the agreement, China Unicom will play to its strengths in fields such as web-based resources, information technology and system integration, in a bid to enhance the informationization level of Qingdao, promote economic transformation and upgrading, as well as facilitate social progress.

The two sides will increase cooperation in six parts.

First, establish China Unicom's big data center in Qingdao. With an investment totaling 3 billion yuan ($444 million) from China Unicom, the center will help to drive major projects regarding informationization in Qingdao, as well as provide quality data processing and cloud services to big Internet businesses from home and abroad, in a bid to transform Qingdao into the "Data Center of Northeast Asia".

Second, speed up the construction of international telecommunications infrastructure in Qingdao. China Unicom will invest in building the city's communications infrastructure, which is designed to improve the international telecommunications service and data interchange capacity of Qingdao.

Third, promote the construction of all-optical network construction in Qingdao to achieve complete coverage in all rural and urban areas. Efforts will be intensified in terms of 4G network infrastructure. This will guarantee a strong foundation for the development of Qingdao's Internet-related industries.

Fourth, promote smart city construction. An open data-sharing platform will be established to promote modern urban governance practices, the digitalization of decision analysis and the urban intelligent operation.

Fifth, promote the development and application of "Internet plus" industry in Qingdao. Various "Internet plus" information platforms and related demonstration projects will be set up in Qingdao. Cloud services will be provided to small- and medium-sized enterprises to support their transitional development. Internet technologies will be encouraged to integrate with other industries.

Sixth, push forward the informationization of Qingdao. Demonstration projects in fields such as e-government cloud platforms and urban grid management will be constructed by the two sides to enhance the level of modernization of city governance.