Ninety cities have been selected as the first pilot cities for China's smart cities project, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development said on Jan 30.

The smart city project refers to an initiative to provide fast and effective information services in areas such as traffic management, healthcare and environmental protection by using advanced information technologies.

The pilot cities include 37 prefecture-level cities, 50 districts or counties, and three towns. The ministry will evaluate the projects in the pilot cities after three to five years.

China Development Bank will lend as much as 80 billion yuan ($12.70 billion) for the projects between 2013 and 2015.

Those who will benefit the most from the projects will be "telecommunications providers and infrastructure suppliers with the best market channels in the Yangtze Delta and Pearl Delta," said Jerrold Wang, an analyst with Lux Research.

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