Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chongqing, will be among 68 cities and areas in a pilot project to encourage the development of e-commerce, 4G telecom networks and cloud-based services, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Smaller cities in 25 provinces and autonomous regions are included in the project as the government looks for ways to speed up urbanization.

Besides economically developed coastal areas, less-developed inland cities, such as Xi’ning in Qinghai and Karamay in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, were also included.

China plans to boost domestic consumption, utilizing information technology, such as broadband Internet and 4G networks, amid weakening foreign trade indicators.

Total output value of Information consumption will pass 3 trillion yuan ($496 billion) by 2015, according to the ministry.

gaoyuan@chinadaily.com.cn