MONTEVIDEO, April 28 (Xinhua) -- Uruguay's capital city of Montevideo is looking to Chinese technology in a bid to expand into a smart city and promote itself as a gateway to Latin American.
The city's mayor Daniel Martinez is set to lead a business delegation to China in May to explore the country's technological advances and how they can be applied back home.
"The idea is to make technology benefit the people and generate jobs," Martinez told Xinhua.
The tour scheduled for May 1-10 will take the delegation to cities including Beijing, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Tianjin, where they will visit leading Chinese companies, such as telecommunication giant Huawei, electric vehicle manufacturer BYD and bike-sharing venture Mobike.
Representatives of Montevideo's business community will be meeting with their Chinese counterparts, as well as national and regional officials, to explore mutual investment opportunities in a year when China and Uruguay mark 30 years of diplomatic ties.
Montevideo is a port city, which is home to 1.4 million people, nearly half of the country's population, and to much of its services and manufacturing industries.
"Due to its stability and average socio-educational level, Montevideo is a point of departure for entering into this region," said Martinez.
ELECTRIC MOBILITY
Martinez envisions residents exclusively traveling on the city's main thoroughfare aboard electric buses, perhaps built by BYD, which has in a short time become the local standard in electric transit.
The capital's main public transportation provider, CUTCSA, includes a quiet BYD-made electric bus among its fleet as part of a pilot program that could lead to more such units being incorporated into the network.
What's more, a BYD electric car has served as the mayor's official vehicle since last year.
An engineer by training, Martinez was impressed when BYD's chief executive told him about a year ago that the company would invest 20 billion U.S. dollars to develop longer-lasting batteries.
"In a year and a half, they improved the batteries," Martinez said, adding that the electric cars used by Uruguay's state energy company, UTE, can run for 160 km on a single charge, while those newer models belonging to the mayor's office can run for up to 300 km.
In December, Uruguay became the first Latin American country to inaugurate an "electric highway," a 300-km corridor linking three cities -- Colonia, Montevideo and Punta del Este. The route has six charging stations every 60 km to cater to electric vehicle drivers.
SMART CITY
Montevideo has made "very important development" as a smart city, where technology, communication and infrastructure interconnect to improve urban life, said Martinez.
Free Wi-Fi spots are numerous, surveillance systems installed along major avenues help manage traffic and monitor security, and waste management has been made easier with the use of technology, he said.
Uruguay is South America's leading exporter of software per capita, with some 700 technology firms exporting to more than 50 markets.
With its advanced communications infrastructure, it also leads regional rankings in Internet access.
In China, said the mayor, "we are going to see things that are of interest to us. We have to see the reality, learn about the opportunities and see where we can collaborate ... bring together our needs, proposals and also the possibility of Chinese and Uruguayan companies being technological counterparts."
"Certainly public-private partnerships, on the Chinese side as well as the Uruguayan side, are going to be beneficial to all sides," he said.
MORE OPPORTUNITIES
Looking into the future, Martinez said that four out of six children born today will work at jobs that don't yet exist, so it's necessary "to understand that technological development is going to be the paradigm and the reality of the coming eras."
"We want to open up as a city and as a country so (China) can offer its technology and its products, and generate relationships with both companies and cities that will allow us to maintain a direct link," said Martinez.
"There is a window of opportunity to strengthen, and as residents of (the port of) Montevideo, we are interested in collaborating in logistical development," said the mayor.
Martinez said he hopes the trip to China will lay the groundwork for future cooperation.
"The function of leaders is to help the private sector develop and boost capacities that drive economic activity and generate more jobs," he added.
