OREANDA-NEWS. Hefei, capital of East China's Anhui province, has been selected by the Ministry of Science and Technology to launch the "smart city" program on a trial basis.

Since it started to apply for the program in December 2012, the local government has been speeding up the expansion of strategic emerging industries, Anhui Daily reported on Wednesday.

High-tech output stood at 249 billion yuan (USD 41 billion) during the Jan-Aug period, up 18 percent over a year earlier. Meanwhile, the number of patent applications exceeded 10,000.

Also,strategic alliances featuring industrial technological innovations were formed for sectors like integrated circuit, new energy vehicles, public security and the Internet of things of agriculture.

Local residents will enjoy more convenience thanks to such systems as intelligent public transport, which are indispensable to the "smart city" program, said government officials.

The program is designed to create an innovation network, optimizing the use of technology to run a city more efficiently.