From "Design" to "Realization": TCS 2025 Co-Creates a New Future for Global Smart Cities
SHANGHAI, Sept. 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- From September 2 to 6, the 2025 Tomorrow.City Shanghai (TCS 2025) was successfully held in Shanghai. With the theme "Challenge and Solution", the event featured three days of public sessions and exhibitions in the venue, followed by two days of city field visits—realizing an integrated dialogue from event halls to the city itself. TCS 2025 gathered delegations from more than 110 cities across Asia, Europe, Latin America, and Africa, and nearly 300 government officials, business executives, scholars, and experts from 25 countries. Together, they explored future pathways for smart cities and digital transformation, promoted in-depth dialogue and cooperation among government, business, academia, research, and investment, and jointly built a normalized international exchange and cooperation network.
From publishing demands to matching projects, from demonstrating intent to signing agreements, the event delivered remarkable outcomes. By the close of the event, data showed that more than 517 pairs of supply and demand parties had connected through the Tomorrow.City Matchmaking Platform, resulting in 122 cooperation intentions and 39 signed contracts, with a total value of approximately USD 120 million. In addition, led by Tomorrow City Co-Investment Co., Ltd. and 12 regional partners, a large-scale USD 1 billion+ urban transformation and industrial cooperation initiative was launched, spanning Southeast Asia, the Middle East, South Asia, Central Asia, Africa, and Latin America. This marked a new stage of active participation for Chinese technology enterprises in global smart city development.
A Global Consensus: Facing Challenges, Sharing Opportunities
At a time when cities worldwide are advancing toward green, sustainable development and data has become the core engine of a new productive force, TCS 2025 centered discussions on four key areas: Tomorrow.Technologies, Tomorrow.Mobility, Tomorrow.Environment, and Tomorrow.Utilities—facilitating international knowledge-sharing and cooperation.
Over three days, the event hosted 20 City Round-tables, 32 City Shows, and 45 City Challenge and Opportunity List Close Door Meetings. The 10,000 m² exhibition area featured more than 100 companies, shaping a multi-dimensional interactive framework that combined idea exchange, experience sharing, and industry matchmaking.
Global challenges such as climate change, aging populations, and energy transition were highlighted. Key sessions included:
Resilient Cities Public Session – addressed solutions for Southeast Asia's flooding and the Middle East's extreme heat, promoting resilient infrastructure co-built by governments and enterprises. Healthcare & Aging Public Session – explored AI and big-data-driven solutions for smart healthcare and elderly care, from technical breakthroughs to inclusive services. Energy Transition Public Session – tackled Asia's dual challenge of high energy demand and carbon emissions, sharing China's experiences in renewable energy and smart grids, and advocating digital technology for clean energy integration and regional cooperation.
City representatives and experts from Spain, Malaysia, China, New Zealand, Thailand, Italy, and beyond shared insights. For example: José de la Uz, President of the Spanish Network of Smart Cities (RECI) and Mayor of Las Rozas de Madrid, noted: "With 94 million tourists annually, Spain is exploring a nationwide smart tourism platform balancing citizen well-being with visitor experience." Leandro Aglieri, President of Rome Smart City Lab, highlighted: "Rome, as a historic and complex city, faces challenges in advancing smart city transformation, such as infrastructure development constrained by heritage preservation." Speakers agreed that smart city development depends not only on technology but also on cross-sector collaboration, integration, and ecosystem sharing.
Alvaro Fernández, Co-CEO of Tomorrow.City, emphasized: "Tomorrow.City Shanghai is a vital stop in our global expansion. China's rapid innovation in digitalization and smart mobility provides real-world scenarios and demonstrations for global smart city cooperation. Facing challenges of climate resilience, digital transformation, and social security, cities must share knowledge and collaborate continuously to foster smarter, more sustainable, and livable cities."
Major Releases: Data Governance & Smart Industry Achievements
During the event, several landmark results were unveiled:
Caixin Global Institute launched the world's first Robotics Industry Index, quantitatively tracking the share of robotics investment in the economy and comparing city-level differences, offering scientific references for smart manufacturing and urban-industrial collaboration.
Fudan University's Lab for Digital & Mobile Governance released the 2025 "ShuLin Operations" Index and the 2025 China Local Government Public Data Licensing Report, providing systematic, compliant, secure, and transparent guidelines for empowering public services with data and advancing China's role in international data governance.
The "Thematic Event-Smart Cities 2050: Shanghai's Showcase of Representative Practical Cases" presented frontier applications such as digital twin transportation, smart hospitals, connected vehicles, low-altitude economy, and the metaverse—together shaping the "Shanghai Model."
After the event, nearly 150 delegates from 18 countries joined the Tomorrow.City Journey to visit 10 smart city demonstration sites, including Xuhui ZhongShan Hospital (smart healthcare), Shanghai Jinqiao (Group)Co., Ltd. (smart mobility), Pudong Laogang (energy & environment), Changning Silicon Alley (urban renewal), and Zhangjiang Robot Valley (AI).
Shan Zhiguang, Director of the Industrial Development and Research Department, National Information Center, noted: "A smart city is not something you just 'build,' but something you 'use, adjust, and continuously refine.' Only through practice can feasible smart city solutions emerge." Shanghai has fully demonstrated China's innovative leadership in global smart city development.
Cooperation with Real Impact: The Chinese Model Goes Global
On international cooperation and business expansion, TCS 2025 released the List of City Challenges & Opportunities, launched the Shanghai Telecommunications and Internet Industry Overseas Expansion Practice Forum, and organized International City Shows and Closed-door Meetings. These diverse channels opened cooperation opportunities, linking Chinese enterprises and overseas partners in practical ways.
The Tomorrow.City Community Shanghai was officially inaugurated, serving as a long-term international network node connecting over 100 countries and regions. Alongside representatives from 15 countries, the first list of 69 cooperative project demands was released. Projects in Malaysia, Thailand, and other markets—focusing on green energy, digital transformation, recycling, and AI big data—have already entered advanced negotiations. Argentina, Qatar, New Zealand, Uruguay, and Oman are also actively engaging on topics such as smart mobility, climate resilience, and carbon-neutral ecosystems.
The Green Expansion Global Public Session spotlighted compliance, financing, and technology collaboration in solid waste treatment and incineration, exploring models for sustainable development in Southeast Asia and beyond. Vichate Tantiwanich, Chairman of Smart and Livable Cities Institute (SLIC), commented: "Chinese enterprises' technologies and services are highly adaptable in Southeast Asia. Thailand looks forward to more collaboration with them."
Through multiple investment matchmaking and regional showcases, partnerships between Chinese companies and global counterparts are accelerating, offering scalable solutions and replicable experiences for global smart city development.
At the closing ceremony, Region & China Smart City Awards ceremony, powered by WSCA recognized outstanding Leadership Category Awards, City Category Awards, Enterprise Category Awards, Best Products Award, and Best Projects （X-SDI） Award, highlighting Asia's innovation in smart city construction. Luis Mao, CEO of SCEWC & Tomorrow.City Greater China Area, concluded: "TCS 2025 is more than an exhibition; it is a platform that drives cooperation into action, showcasing the confidence and commitment of Chinese cities to share wisdom and shape the future together with the world."
Looking Ahead
The 2025 Tomorrow.City Shanghai not only showcased the latest outcomes and trends in global smart city construction but also provided an essential platform for experience exchange, technical cooperation, and project implementation among international cities.
"Through cooperation and exchange, we are not only designing the cities of the future—we are realizing them," emphasized Wu Zhiqiang, Member of Chinese Academy of Engineering, Member of German National Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech), and Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA). He stressed that smart city development requires joint efforts by government, industry, and academia to transform technological innovation into governance capacity and citizen well-being.
The event was organized by Fira Internacional de Barcelona, Smart City Expo World Congress, the Shanghai Application and Promotion Center of City Digital Transformation (Shanghai Smart City Promotion Center), and the Shanghai Pudong New Area Bureau of Data; undertaken by Shanghai Tomorrow City & Enterprise Development Co., Ltd.; and supported by the People's Government of Pudong New Area and the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Data.
The outcomes of TCS 2025 will also be carried forward to the Smart City Expo World Congress (SCEWC) in Barcelona this November, further deepening global cooperation in smart city development.
SOURCE Smart City Expo
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