(Yicai Global) June 7 -- Alibaba Group Holding's cloud unit will develop a sophisticated management model for megacities in Shanghai through a partnership with a local media firm.

Alibaba Cloud Computing, also known as AliCloud, will work with Oriental Pearl Group to promote its ET City Brain smart city solution, the Hangzhou-based company's President Hu Xiaoming said at today's Computing Conference Shanghai

event.

"Shanghai ranks top in China in terms of population, economy, subway mileage and number of skyscrapers, which is a huge challenge but also a great technological opportunity to ET City Brain," Hu said. "We are working with Shanghai to create a sophisticated management model for mega-cities."

The two parties' cooperation will focus on seven key areas, namely, emergency medical services, city management, environmental governance, tourism development and urban planning,

Since AliCloud first started running ET City Brain in Hangzhou in 2016, the system has managed 128 signalized junctions and travel times were reduced by 15.3 percent, while those on elevated highways fell by around 4.6 minutes, on average. ET City Brain has helped some 120 ambulances get to emergency scenes twice as fast since operation.

Hu said that traffic governance is only the starting point, and data is already beginning to add value to society. "Cities in the future will have one million times more data, but consume only one-tenth of the water and electricity, take up less natural space, and be more comfortable and convenient to live in," he added.

Editor: William Clegg