Lin-gang Special Area of China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone is expected to see over 10 billion yuan ($1.4 billion) worth of investment in  key "new infrastructure" projects over the next three years as Shanghai aims to boost global information technology capabilities.

The Shanghai municipal government unveiled a 35-point action plan on May 7 which aims to promote the construction of new-generation networks, data centers, and artificial intelligence, among other forms of technology-intensive infrastructure by 2022.

Lin-gang Special Area will build five comprehensive stations, five cloud computing centers, 100 edge machine rooms and convergence machine rooms, 2,230 5G outdoor base stations and 4,731 optical cable joint-boxes in the next three years, Wu Xiaohua, deputy director of the Lin-gang Special Area Administration, told a news conference on May 7.

"We've drawn up a new action plan to build communications infrastructure so that we can take the lead in achieving full coverage of home kilomega network access and business gigabit network access," he said.

Lin-gang Special Area will also use new infrastructure to boost industrial clusters of integrated circuits, new energy vehicles, high-end equipment, biomedicine and civil aviation through four different strategies.

According to Wu, the first strategy is to boost the innovation capacity of industrial internet. Within three years, Lin-gang will have built more than 30 industrial internet standard laboratories, over 15 high-quality industrial data sets and industrial algorithm libraries, and no less than 30 industrial intelligent fusion and innovation scenarios.

The second strategy is to build an international data harbor to provide real-time data support for cross-border finance and new types of trades.

The third is to accelerate deep industrial integration between artificial intelligence and other industries such as IC, high-end equipment, biomedicine and civil aviation. Lin-gang plans to build more than 100 AI application scenarios and gather over 3,000 AI talents.

The last is to develop "online new economy" - cultivating a number of new forms and models of business that are "online, intelligent and interactive" with the integration of new infrastructure and modern manufacturing. Within three years, Lin-gang will gather 200 digital innovative firms and form more than 10 digital brands.

The demonstration of "smart home" based on 5G is on display at the second China International Import Expo in Shanghai, on Nov 13, 2019. [Photo/Sipa]