Macao SAR Government signed an agreement with the Alibaba Group on 4^th August to further develop Macao as a Smart City by employing Alibaba's big data processing capabilities and cloud computing to enhance the quality of the city's public services.

Progress expected by end-2018

Other areas of co-operation identified in the agreement include the development of an integrated system for public services; enhancement of tourism services by applying information technologies to turn Macao into a smart tourism city; building a smart transportation network; and launching certificate programmes to train more professionals in Alibaba business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce and Alibaba Cloud information technology.

According to the agreement, co-operation will fall into two phases, the first of which will run until June 2019, and address the construction of a cloud computing data centre in Macao, as well as a data mapping stage of information managed by the government. During the first phase, the parties will gradually launch projects using a range of big data services in order to accelerate Macao's development in a number of areas - namely, tourism, the training of information technology professionals, transportation management, medical services and urban management. Results of the first phase are expected by late 2018.

The second phase of the framework agreement spans July 2019 to June 2021. Apart from the ongoing optimisation of information technology infrastructure across Macao, both parties would initiate projects related to environmental protection, Customs clearance procedures, and forecasting models for Macao's economy.

Smart City Macao

The Head of the Office of the Chief Executive, O Lam, said that the MSAR Government attaches great importance to the development of information technology, striving to develop Macao as a Smart City. In this regard, the government has outlined clear policy objectives in the city's first Five-Year Development Plan, as well as in the Policy Addresses of the last two years, while related work is proceeding accordingly. Construction of a Smart City is a systematic and strategic task for the MSAR Government in its march towards developing the economy and citizens' livelihood. Thus, the MSAR Government will implement the agreement with both long term planning and short-middle smart-projects.

Ms. O Lam said that the Science and Technology Development Fund (FDCT) had invited a team to study the direction and strategies of the development of Macao as a Smart City. Meanwhile, infrastructure continues to propel the construction of a Smart City, accelerating the implementation of electronic public services in order to create suitable conditions to achieve the Smart City goal.

She also revealed that the MSAR Government had analyzed the experiences of other regions. After careful study and debate, the Administration decided to co-operate with the Alibaba Group, promoting the project to create the Cloud computing centre and applicable big data techniques, the former serving as the base and latter as support in the creation of a data network for the MSAR.

Long term goals

O Lam also explained that the co-operation between the MSAR Government and Alibaba Group is due to the fact that Alibaba Cloud is one of the largest suppliers of cloud services in China, in addition to occupying a leading international position. Alibaba Cloud is used by more than 200 countries and regions, she said, for local and national security plus regional and industrial safety. In the Southeast Asian region Alibaba Cloud is highly respected and certified for its Cloud computing expertise.

The MSAR Government believes Alibaba Cloud's platform, with its openness and compatibility, will help the territory maximize use of its existing technological bases, enabling coexistence between different technologies on the same platform in the future. Macao will explore and expand this world in a flexible way, thus guaranteeing the openness of development of information technology of the Macao SAR Government. O Lam also said that the services provided by the Alibaba Group meet the needs of the development of a Smart City. Thus, in her view, co-operating with this group is in line with long-term local development interests.

The president of Alibaba Cloud, Simon Hu, said that Alibaba Cloud's Big Data and deep learning had already established a number of 'City Brains' in China, and improved people's livelihood, expressing confidence that by using the company's experience and technology Macao could successfully implement its information technology projects, serving, in turn, as a reference for Smart City development in the Asia Pacific region.