People are seen near a robot at the venue for the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai on July 9. [Photo/Agencies]

Shanghai has won the World Smart City Award 2020 in an international competition recognizing pioneering projects that make cities livable, sustainable and economically viable.

The Smart City Expo World Congress, an international summit about urban life and technological revolution, recognized Shanghai's achievements in areas such as digital infrastructure construction, e-government and 5G deployment during its annual awards ceremony held online from Nov 17 to 18.

The Smart Shanghai－People-Oriented Smart City digital infrastructure project saw Shanghai become a "Dual Gigabit" city with its achievement of full 5G coverage in the downtown area and fibre coverage across 99 percent of the city.

The city's e-government initiative, which has over 14.5 million users, also received special commendation from the judges.

Shanghai's deputy mayor Wu Qing says the city attaches great importance to the leading role of digitalization, networking and intelligence in urban development, according to Xinhua News Agency. He adds that the city will further promote digital transformation and strive to build a smart city that provides a sense of gain, happiness and security to its residents.

Mao Huidong, CEO of the Smart City Expo World Congress and Tomorrow City in China, says that the award is "a comprehensive demonstration of the effectiveness and achievements of Shanghai's smart-city construction in recent years".

Some of the best practices include the establishment of the intelligent-sensor system, dubbed 12345, by adopting AI to analyze the relationship among trending social topics. The purpose of 12345 is to predict imminent emergencies and provide decision-making support for efficient service handling.

Another best practice is Shanghai's Huangpu district, which relies on internet-of-things technology to run 15 special applications for city management in four sectors: public security, public management, public service and economical operation.

In terms of 5G coverage, Chinese mobile carriers have built 25,000 outdoor base stations and 31,000 indoor ones, making Shanghai the city with the most 5G stations in China, according to municipal authorities. The local government's plan to roll out 5G coverage by 2020 is part of a three-year plan which will see it invest a total of 30 billion yuan ($4.6 billion).

Over at the AI-demonstration zone, dubbed AIsland, in Shanghai's Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park, Microsoft's AI and IoT lab have teamed up with robot maker TMiRob to apply the latest AI technologies in the latter's product development by continuously optimizing AI algorithms.

Earlier this year, TMiRob made headlines by dispatching its disinfecting and ward robots to hospitals in Wuhan to help control the coronavirus outbreak.

Pan Jing, CEO of TMiRob, says the company is constantly upgrading its products to cater to the needs of different scenarios through this partnership with Microsoft.

"Microsoft's lab hopes to penetrate different industries in Pudong. We focus on biomedicine, integrated circuits, smart manufacturing and smart finance," says Zhu Lin, director of AI innovation strategy for Microsoft's China division.