Recently, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and National Development and Reform Commission jointly issued The Notice on Promoting Cloud Network Integration and Accelerating the Construction of Information Infrastructure In Small and Medium-sized Cities (hereinafter referred to as the notice). The notice proposes that by 2025, cloud network infrastructure covering small and medium-sized cities will be basically built in the eastern region, the central and western regions and most parts of the northeast, with gigabit access capacity and cloud resource pool covering more than 1,000 small and medium-sized cities.

Accelerating the upgrading of network infrastructure and the deployment of application infrastructure on demand in small and medium-sized cities is of great significance for developing the digital economy, bettering the functions suitable for living and working, improving the well-being of people's livelihood and accelerating the urbanization construction with the county as an important carrier. The notice is mainly aimed at small and medium-sized cities (including prefecture-level cities, counties and big towns) with a permanent resident population of less than 1 million in the urban area.

 In accordance with the basic principles of acting according to circumstances, coordinated promotion, enterprise leadership, government guidance, cloud network coordination and industrial linkage, and in combination with the development foundation and industrial needs of information infrastructure in the eastern region, the central and western regions and northeast China, differentiated means such as organizing the establishment of project library, building demonstration benchmark and promoting the integration into relevant national projects should be adopted to guide small and medium-sized cities to promote the overall layout of information infrastructure construction in accordance with unified planning, strengthen cloud network integration, and push forward coordinated regional development.

The notice proposes that by 2025, cloud network infrastructure covering small and medium-sized cities will be basically completed in the eastern region, the central and western regions and most parts of the northeast, with gigabit access capacity and cloud resource pool covering more than 1,000 small and medium-sized cities, so as to effectively improve the end-to-end access experience of public users and meet the digital transformation needs of enterprises in small and medium-sized cities and provide a solid foundation for industrial agglomeration and high-quality development of small and medium-sized cities.

With the development trend of technology and the development needs of local digital economy, under the guidance of the overall goal, the notice puts forward five key tasks, including accelerating the improvement of network infrastructure in small and medium-sized cities, orderly making layout of application infrastructure in small and medium-sized cities, actively promoting cloud network technology integration and innovation in small and medium-sized cities, vigorously cultivating integrated applications based on cloud infrastructure and improving the supporting capacity of economic and social digital transformation.