Shanghai signs strategic cooperation agreement with Baidu

The Shanghai Municipal Government signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement with Baidu Inc, an AI and Internet giant in the world, on Tuesday. Shanghai Party Secretary Li Qiang and Mayor Ying Yong met Robin Li, chairman of Baidu, and his delegation on the same day.

Li said artificial intelligence is one of the key fields in which Shanghai can develop its real economy and enhance its innovative capability. The city will take advantage of its scientific and education resources, application scenes, mass amount of data, and infrastructures to attract more development and research institutes and professionals to carry out AI scene applications, exhibit their latest AI technological breakthroughs, and promote the AI applications in production and real life scenes.

Baidu’s efforts in promoting the AI technologies in practice and its forward-looking strategic layout highly dovetails with Shanghai’s industrial development goals and the two have great cooperation potentials.

Shanghai supports Baidu to set up its innovation center and the Internet of Things headquarters in Shanghai, and put more of its innovation resources, technological breakthroughs, and more innovative transfer results in Shanghai and to involve more in the city’s urban management.

Shanghai will work hard to build the best market environment and provide better services to companies operating in the city, and make the companies to have more sense of gain, Li added.

Ying presided over the signing ceremony and welcomed Baidu to make more investment in Shanghai. He said the city’s business environment will only be better. The city will treat all companies, no matter private, foreign, or state-owned as equal market entities. The city will build a market environment where all the companies’ needs will be met to promote their better development. The city welcomes more and more quality technological and innovative companies to invest here.

Li thanked the Shanghai Municipal Government’s support. He said Shanghai has its advantages in its aggregation of various business factors, domestic and foreign talent, and its openness.

Baidu will take advantage of the strategic framework agreement to further increase its investment in the city and promote more applications of new business models, applications, and products, he added.

Zhuge Yujie, secretary-general of the CPC Shanghai Committee; Wu Qing, vice-mayor of Shanghai; and Wang Lu, vice president of Baidu, also attended the meeting.

According to the agreement, the two parties will build Baidu (Shanghai) Innovation Center to help Shanghai build its national AI development highland. Baidu will use its advantages to help Shanghai in its efforts of building itself into a smart city. Baidu will accelerate the construction of its Internet of Things headquarters in Shanghai and build the identification platforms of the Internet of Things in key fields.

Also, Baidu signed cooperation agreements with Yangpu and Baoshan districts in the city.