The signing ceremony of a "Smart City Development Alliance" was held concurrently with China International Urbanization Forum 2014 in Shanghai on April 19, 2014, according to Zhongguancun's Administrative Committee.

The alliance was jointly launched by ten organizations including the China Center for Urban Development, Digital China, SEEC Media, SRE Group, IBM, Minsheng Bank, AsiaInfo-Linkage, Central China Group, Bright Oceans Corporation and Letv.

As a win-win cooperation between enterprises and cities, the alliance will help promote urban governance, city management and public service innovation.

"It is significant for IBM to join in the Smart City Development Alliance. IBM has been committed to promoting the development of urbanization in China since we first put forward the idea of Smart City," said DC Chien, CEO of IBM Greater China.

"We will continue to help China push forward urbanization with emerging technologies such as big data analysis, cloud computing and mobile technology," he added.

IBM plans to apply more advanced technology into the development of Smart City. It will help cities to enhance management and innovation, change the traditional service mode and upgrade industries through science and technology. In short, it will improve cities’ competitiveness and allow them to better serve the public and enterprises.

Cities in China have experienced an evolution from Digital City and Wireless City to Smart City. The last stage incorporates intelligence. Managers will use various new technologies to meet the demand of rich applications in the city. Meanwhile, data analysis, information integration and intelligent data mining will connect different departments within the city and among cities.