Southwest China seen as rising tech center

China has called for more efforts to promote digital economy in Southwest China's Guizhou province in a new guideline, which industry experts and company executives said will help drive the province's great advantages in cloud and big data sectors for higher-quality economic development.

The guideline, released by the State Council, China's Cabinet, clarified Guizhou's strategic role as a demonstration area for comprehensive reform in the development of China's western regions. The aim of the guideline is to support the province in breaking new ground in the country's pursuit of large-scale development of its western regions in the new era.

Highlighting the importance of a modern industrial system led by digital economy, the document encourages the province to enhance science and technology innovation and fully develop the potential of data elements so as to promote the integrated development of digital economy and the real economy.

Liao Fei, head of Science and Technology Department of Guizhou provincial government, said: "The guideline is of great significance to driving the province's high-quality economic and social development through scientific and technological innovations. The guideline asked us to continue promoting key technologies, products, major technology companies and related talent. With the new guideline, more efforts are also expected to be made in supporting leading tech players and optimizing the industrial structure to further drive digital economy development."

Nestled in a mountainous region, Guizhou has been striving over the past few years to become a global hub of big data so as to help develop its local economy and boost employment.

Last year, revenue of the province's electronic information manufacturing and telecommunications industries grew 27.8 percent and 18.8 percent, respectively, year-on-year.

Yang Yunyong, president of Guizhou-Cloud, a government data exchange and sharing platform, said, "It inspires us to catch up on opportunities brought by the guideline to beef up our core competitiveness in cloud development."

With such efforts from the government, Yang said that the company is confident of achieving a production value of 2.1 billion yuan ($330 million) this year. In January, the company achieved a production value of 92 million yuan, an increase of 17.6 percent year-on-year.

The move also came as the country has approved a project involving the construction of eight national computing hubs and plans to build 10 national data center clusters including one in Guizhou province, in order to channel more computing resources from the country's eastern regions to its less developed yet resource-rich western regions.

Guian New Area, a national-level new urban area in Guizhou, plans to create a hub of 12 mega data centers and 4 million servers with a fixed-asset investment of over 40 billion yuan by 2025.

Tao Changhai, Guizhou's vice-governor, said in an earlier interview: "The province will continue to leverage the digital economy to offer important engines for the upgrade and transformation of traditional industries. Guizhou has unique advantages and conditions for the development of big data. It has attracted many large and super large data centers. More efforts will be made to create a better environment for the development of big data in the future."

More than 5,000 big data companies have been set up in Guian New Area. The output of the area's digital economy reached 164.9 billion yuan in 2020, accounting for 38 percent of the region's GDP. Last year's data have not yet been released.