The coastal city of Yantai in East China's Shandong province aims to transform the city into a "smart and innovative city" in the coming years, according to the newly-released New Urbanization Planning of Yantai (2021-35).

The city plans to promote the development of next-generation information and communication technologies, and build a smart ecosystem for resource sharing, according to Yu Baohua, an official from the city's development and reform commission.

Yu added that by 2025, Yantai plans to develop a complete smart town system, and the level of integrated infrastructure in transport, energy, and government affairs is expected to lead the country, and a sound digital service system benefiting the people in education, medical care, culture, elderly care and other fields is expected to be established by 2025.

Yantai also plans to make continuous efforts to advance the construction of its information infrastructure. By 2025, the total number of 5G base stations in Yantai is expected to reach 25,000, ensuring that the city can establish 5G signals covering central districts and towns, and important parks and tourism hotspots.

An intelligent service system, which will help the city achieve digital transformation in areas such as education, healthcare, transportation, culture and tourism, employment, poverty alleviation, elderly care, public security and other application scenarios is also being developed. An integrated mobile application is expected to be developed to ensure that people have access to various services at their fingertips.

Digital technologies are expected to be widely used in city governance, aiming to accelerate the establishment of a digital governance system that is accurate, efficient, smart and harmonious, and comprehensively modernize the urban governance system and its capacity.

Yantai in East China's Shandong province aims to transform the city into a "smart and innovative" city in the coming years. [Photo/VCG]