Yang Mei

yangmei_szdaily@163.com

TECH giants in Shenzhen are providing powerful support for the city’s transformation into a new type of smart city. Ping An Insurance (Group), China’s largest insurer by market value, has also set its eye on the city’s smart city projects and has a foothold in the field with its distinctive advantages, said Hu Wei, a member of Ping An Group Executive Committee and Ping An Smart City co-president & CTO.

Hu made the remarks before attending the Asia-Pacific Smart City Development Forum during the 21st China Hi-Tech Fair.

“Before we apply the technologies to smart city projects, we tested and incubated the technologies within the system of Ping An’s own businesses. For example, Ping An is using its mature image recognition technology in food safety.

“The technology is so precise that it can even help the food safety supervision departments to identify a mouse in a restaurant’s kitchen or whether the chef is properly wearing a mask, which can significantly reduce manpower and increase efficiency,” Hu said.

According to Hu, Ping An is investing at least 1 percent of its annual revenue in expanding technology businesses and developing smart city technologies. He said Ping An now has eight research institutes and 56 labs dedicated to the development of technology.

In early 2019, the Shenzhen government joined hands with Ping An to build the app “i深圳,” one of the most striking examples of Shenzhen’s efforts to facilitate e-government services.

“The app offers more than 4,000 services that make it much easier and efficient for residents to handle government-required procedures,” he said.

Hu also mentioned that Ping An’s natural advantage in the analysis of macroeconomics can be a valuable reference for cities in formulating economic policies. “We can forecast the GDP in the coming six to nine months,” the CTO said.

Hu said Ping An is building an e-license platform based on blockchain to make people’s daily lives more convenient and secure. “Thanks to the blockchain privacy protection technology, we are making efforts to apply the technology to scenarios in people’s daily lives,” he said.

Hu believes smart cities should put people first and address people’s concerns. “Only when people feel convenience and efficiency in their daily lives will they gain a sense of happiness,” he said.

Hu added that Ping An is committed to improving government services, helping companies grow and benefiting the public.