The prestigious rankings for 2023 China Software City were recently announced, with a total of 14 cities receiving the recognition.

Shenzhen, Hangzhou and Beijing were rated as three-star cities, while Xiamen – located in East China's Fujian province – and 10 others were designated as two-star cities.

The appellation China Software City refers to cities with outstanding industrial strength – leading in their scale of social benefits and development quality. These cities demonstrate exemplary leadership in their collaborative innovation, integrated applications and business-friendly environment.

After achieving goals and meeting prescribed standards, cities are awarded the title of China Software City by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

To date, Xiamen has attracted a group of leading domestic enterprises, primarily focused on advanced applications. One prime example is Reconova, a top-tier facial recognition company delivering solutions to about a third of domestic airports including Beijing Daxing International Airport.

Xiamen has explored a distinctive development path by leveraging artificial intelligence for the growth of its digital economy.

Since 2018, it has introduced facilitating policies and measures related to AI, digital economy, software and emerging industries. This has supported the advancement of AI enterprises in multiple directions – including technology research and development, demonstration applications and public service platform construction.

The inauguration of the Xiamen branch of the Fujian Province Artificial Intelligence Industrial Park has been announced. It will be situated in the F zone within the third phase of the Xiamen Software Park and will leverage Xiamen's "4+4+6" modern industrial system.

As such, the Industrial Park will vigorously diversify technology applications and create unique intelligent industrial clusters in sectors including unmanned driving, smart security, smart transportation and smart healthcare.