Pingtan was included on a list of the nation's first 90 trial "wisdom cities" released by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development (MOHURD) on Jan 29, reported Xinhua News Agency.

A "wisdom city" refers to a city that has government administrative mechanisms that support new generation information technologies, including the Internet of Things and cloud computing.

The list includes 37 cities, 50 counties and three towns, including Fuzhou's Cangshan district, Nanping city and Pingtan county. The next three to five years will focus on construction in these trial areas. They will then be graded as one- to three-star regions by related government organizations in accordance to their development.

The "wisdom city" project is part of the nation's strategic development plan. It is expected to expand domestic demand and investment and promote industrial structure optimization, according to Qiu Baoxing, vice-minister of MOHURD.

China Development Bank, one of China's policy banks, will also provide a total of 80 billion yuan ($12.86 billion) with MOHURD to finance the project, according to a spokesperson with the bank.

Edited by Chen Zhilin and Michael Thai