Changchun -- capital city of Northeast China's Jilin province -- was awarded the title of "China's leading smart city in 2020" on Nov 12, marking a major recognition for its planning, innovation and development achievements, as it continues its transformation as a smart city.

Changchun was given the award at the Asia-Pacific Smart City Development Forum 2020 held in Shenzhen, a major city in South China's Guangzhou province.

During the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-20), Changchun has made great efforts to develop its digital economy and transform itself as a digital government and smart city, driving forwards its high-quality development.

In this process, Huawei has been an important partner of Changchun.

In November, in the wake of previous businesses, the two signed a cooperation agreement for a series of major projects. These included construction of a Northeast Asian digital economy sample project and expanding current ventures.

In recent years, Changchun has helped with the digital upgrading of local traditional industries. It began construction of a smart city and a Changchun modern metropolitan area, and related projects have made considerable progress.

Taking the construction of the Changchun 761 intelligent information network project as an example, as of September, Changchun had planned 252 related projects and plans to invest 109.84 billion yuan ($16.75 billion) from now until the end of the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25).

In the current year, planned investment had reached 24.26 billion yuan and 121 intelligent information network projects had begun construction.