Worldwide internet solutions provider Cisco Systems has started a smart city project in Panyu district of Guangzhou, Guangdong province, one of the city's latest innovative endeavors.

Cisco plans to turn Guangzhou into a leading example of a smart city by integrating its industry, academia, research, business and financial services.

Cisco has been working with China for more than two decades, focusing on innovation-driven development and information technology-based industrial transformation, said Chuck Robbins, CEO of Cisco, at the project's groundbreaking ceremony.

"We think this project is a tremendous opportunity for us to bring our capabilities together with our partners to deliver the vision that our teams have to make this an innovation showcase for the world," Xinhua quoted him as saying.

The city has been putting the national call for innovation into practice to drive the local economy in recent years, sparing no effort in transforming itself into a national center of innovation.

In the first quarter of this year, Guangzhou attracted 14 internet giants, including Tencent and Alibaba. Construction on offices for 12 of the businesses has already started, involving a total investment of 55 billion yuan ($8 billion; 7.19 billion euros).

Sakai Display Products Corp, a subsidiary of the world's largest electronics contractor, Foxconn Technology Group, also invested 61 billion yuan in a new plant in March to produce 10.5-generation, 8K-resolution displays and smart TVs.

Guangzhou was home to 4,740 high-tech companies in 2016, including 2,820 that were founded last year, an increase that ranked the city No 2 in China, after Beijing.

Since 2013, Guangzhou has been encouraging startups by increasing incubators and hosting events and awards for innovation to boost the exchange of ideas.

To date, Guangzhou has 200 business incubators involving more than 10,000 startup projects. The number of high-quality national high-tech startup incubators in the city has been at the forefront of the country for two consecutive years.

It has hosted events such as the Convention on Exchange of Overseas Talents, the China Innovation and Entrepreneurship Fair and the Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation.

The city plans to give priority to strategic emerging industries, such as IT, biology and healthcare, new materials, advanced machinery, new energy vehicles, renewable energy, environmental protection and energy conservation.

Frontier sectors, including artificial intelligence and robotics, precision healthcare and medical services, wearable devices, cloud-computing and big data, are also a focus of the city's future industrial landscape, according to the city's plan.

(China Daily European Weekly 06/09/2017 page28)