China to boost cybersecurity industry with planned industrial park

China aims to build a world-class national cybersecurity industrial park, which will help cultivate a 100 billion yuan ($15 billion) cybersecurity industry in Beijing by 2020 and help the country safely tap into big data and artificial intelligence technologies, officials said Tuesday.?

The industrial park will be jointly built by the Beijing municipal government and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). Officials expect the park to contribute more than 330 billion yuan to gross domestic product growth by 2020.

Chen Zhaoxiong, vice-minister of Industry and Information Technology, said the rapid development of big data, cloud computing and other cutting-edge technologies is injecting new momentum into China's economic growth.

"More efforts are needed to push innovation as well as the research and development of cybersecurity technologies," Chen said.

Currently, half of China's cybersecurity companies are registered in Beijing and six of them generate over 1 billion yuan in annual revenue. Officials hope that by 2020, the new cybersecurity park will house at least three companies that have annual revenues exceeding 10 billion yuan.

Zhang Boxu, director of Beijing Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology, said the Beijing municipal government and MIIT will offer financial support such as creating a special fund and favorable fiscal policies to support the construction of the new industrial park.

In May, a 10 billion yuan fund has been initiated by CSC Financial and Beijing Daily Group to invest in promising companies involved in the information security industry.