Digitalization key to making YRD a world-class city cluster

China’s Yangtze River Delta City Cluster comprises three provinces and one municipality. Home to 200million people and covering an area of 350,000 square meters, it ranks among the world’s most densely populated regions. More than 30 years ago,the Chinese government launched an integrated development initiative that would make the region one of the country’s strongest economic powerhouses.

Fast forward, and the region’s aggregate economic output today accounts for roughly 20 percent of China’s overall economy. That’s the equivalent of India’s total aggregate economic output.The Chinese government intends to develop this region even further.That’s why in November 2018, the government made the Yangtze River Delta Development Initiative a national strategy. The goal? Turn the region into a world-class city cluster.

Establishing a city cluster, let alone one with world-class status, is no easy feat. It requires a high level of coordination among the participating cities. Municipal governments must ensure that information is shared, that access to data is available, and that market barriers are removed.

But such measures merely provide the necessary framework for getting a city cluster off the ground. Beyond that, projects like the Yangtze River Delta Development Initiative need the support of multinational companies that can provide critical technologies in fields such as energy,manufacturing, health care, building technologies, digitalization and smart infrastructure.

Multinational companies bring unique assets to the table; They have the technological expertise and resources needed to implement large-scale projects. And they offer the digital technologies needed to effectively address urban development challenges and give cities a competitive advantage.

Industrie 4.0, manufacturing and smart infrastructure

Manufacturing creates jobs like no other sector. It accounts for roughly70 percent of the global exchange of goods. That’s why the competitiveness of this sector is vital to every national economy — and that’s why being part of the Fourth Industrial Revolution is so important. Commonly known as Industrie 4.0 here in Germany, the Fourth Industrial Revolution evolved from the integration and rapid development of automation, industrial software, connectivity, the Internet of Things and a host of related digital technologies.

However, Industrie 4.0 is capital intensive.And that’s why it’s a good idea to distribute costs by establishing shared Industrie 4.0 innovation centers as well as public-service platforms.This not only reduces costs for individual stakeholders; it also fosters industrial R&D, incubation, and coordinated development, thereby encouraging the broad-based adoption of Industrie 4.0 technologies by SMEs at the local level. This, in turn,attracts upstream and downstream enterprises to the region and thus results in the improvement of existing industries, more effective resource allocation, and more sustainable economic development

Smart infrastructure and a higher quality of life

An example today is the concept of a “Digital Twin,” which has taken hold in many sectors. Digital Twins enable engineers to design, simulate and test sophisticated products in the virtual domain before making the first physical prototypes, setting up production lines or going into production. This allows manufacturing companies,for example, to meet diverse and rapidly changing demands, improve competitiveness, and adapt to market changes.

But Digital Twins are also used in smart infrastructure — a critical field for the creation of smart cities. In Helsinki, for example, we at Siemens used our MindSphere IoT platform to link the data compiled by the Helsinki3D+ project with the IoT-enabled infrastructure components that spread through out the physical city. This data on the city’s underlying physical infrastructure can then be used to analyze performance and to develop and model preventative as well as prescriptive measures.

Instead of building smart infrastructure from scratch, most cities can upgrade existing infrastructures by retrofitting them with sensors and automatic control technologies. Digital technologies make infrastructure both more efficient and more effective while significantly mitigating the downsides of urbanization.

Furthermore, their adoption stimulates innovation and boosts productivity — which attracts investors and workers with digital skills.In short: Digital technologies trigger a virtuous circle. Over time, this can significantly improve public services and thereby raise the quality of life for residents.

Enormous potential for the Yangtze River Delta

As one of the most populous and most rapidly developing cities in the world and a city with substantial innovation power and a highly skilled workforce,Shanghai has great potential. However,to live up to this potential and to rapidly implement the Yangtze River Delta Development Initiative, Shanghai must cultivate an open economy, make sure that adequate national and international data communication networks are in place, and allocate the resources needed to digitalize infrastructure and industry.

For the benefits of digital technologies to materialize, capital, labor and information must flow freely within a given region. With relevant data, the efficiency and capability of urban infrastructures — not to mention the management of such infrastructures — can be taken to the next level.

Multinational companies like Siemens are more than willing to support the sustainable development of the Yangtze River Delta city cluster — by providing technology and expertise and, most importantly, by forming long-term partnerships with municipalities and local enterprises and by co-creating solutions that benefit the entire region.