The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of the PRC (MOHURD) recently announced that Erdos, Hulunbeir, Shiguai District of Baotou and Hohhot in Inner Mongolia autonomous region have been selected as 2014 national Smart City pilot areas.

A smart city uses digital technologies such as the Internet, cloud computing to enhance performance and wellbeing, to reduce costs and resource consumption, and to engage more effectively and actively with its citizens. Key "smart" sectors include transport, energy, health care, water and waste. With the acceleration of urbanization, it's an irreversible trend in the worldwide to develop smart city in a bid to achieve sustainable urban development.

In recent years, the information infrastructure in smart city pilot areas of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region has achieved leapfrog development. Currently, Hohhot has achieved whole network of digitalization. The cloud computing industry base has been constructed and it's planning to construct a national level cloud computing base.

Shiguai District in Baotou deepened the development of tourism, mining, and agriculture which significantly enhanced its competitiveness. The city of Erdos has invested 40 billion yuan ($6.45 billion) on the smart city construction and the city of Hulunbeir is constructing a cloud computing center and strives to create an open global cloud storage platform.