The Shanghai Municipal Government has unveiled a comprehensive plan, titled the "Shanghai City Action Plan for Advancing New Infrastructure Construction (2023-2026)". This initiative seeks to revolutionise the city's infrastructure and services by harnessing the potential of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, 5G, and digital twins.

Four Key Objectives

The plan outlines four pivotal goals that Shanghai aims to achieve:

1. Global Connectivity: Shanghai plans to establish itself as a world-class dual-ten-gigabit city with cutting-edge 5G-A and 10Gb optical networks.
2. Technology Empowerment: Accelerated development of high-performance computing and top-tier data infrastructure to support innovations in artificial intelligence and blockchain.
3. Innovation Hub: The city aims to create the most comprehensive cluster of innovative infrastructure globally.
4. Smart City Transformation: A holistic transformation into an integrated, advanced, and extensive city smart terminal infrastructure system.

Expansion into Five Key Domains

The action plan extends its reach to five crucial areas:

• Network Evolution: Building an advanced ubiquitous interconnection network infrastructure to boost connectivity.
• Enhanced Computing Power: Establishing high-performance computing infrastructure that collaborates seamlessly with cloud networks.
• Quality Data Hub: Creating a robust data infrastructure that integrates data intelligence capabilities.
• Innovative Foundation: Developing forward-looking infrastructure with open empowerment to drive technological innovation.
• Efficient Smart Terminals: Crafting an intelligent high-performance terminal infrastructure to facilitate seamless service delivery.

Focus on High-Quality Data Infrastructure

The plan outlines key initiatives to enhance data infrastructure:

• National Data Exchange: Leading the establishment of a national data trading platform, enhancing data accessibility.
• Multilingual Databases: Creating multilingual language databases and high-quality industry data sets to improve data quality.
• Blockchain Initiatives: Building the Pudong Data Link and government blockchain infrastructure to promote secure and efficient data transactions.
• Public Data Repository: Establishing a public data resource repository and authorized operating platform for easier data access.
• Digital Twins: Laying the groundwork for city digital twins and metaverse infrastructure to enhance urban planning and management.

Blockchain Advancements

The plan also highlights significant blockchain initiatives:

• Blockchain Service: The creation of the Pudong Data Link blockchain open network and computing cluster, aimed at providing efficient support for blockchain applications.
• Government Blockchain: Establishing a secure, autonomous, and feature-complete government blockchain platform to facilitate data sharing and drive blockchain applications across various sectors.

Advancements in Digital Twins and Metaverse

Efforts are directed at creating:

• City "One Map": Developing an authoritative, lightweight, and user-friendly "One Map" service application system to improve urban planning.
• Metaverse Innovations: Accelerating the establishment of a metaverse platform and the use of advanced technologies such as three-dimensional digital spaces and virtual digital human applications.

Comprehensive Digital Transformation

Shanghai is set to leverage its experience from existing demonstration projects in ten key areas. This includes improvements in high-performance computing, blockchain technology adoption, data element markets, public data authorization, robotics, autonomous driving, warehousing, renewable energy, healthcare data, and smart elderly care services.

Shanghai's commitment to advancing new infrastructure is aimed at transforming the city into a technological powerhouse, enhancing its global competitiveness, and ensuring a brighter digital future.