Authorities make electronics industries a priority to drive regional industrial growth
Guian New Area in Southwest Chinas Guizhou province plans to highlight the emerging big data industry to drive its economic growth, according to the local government.
Construction of Guian New Area began in October 2012. It became a national-level new area in January 2014 with the approval of the State Council.
The 1,795-square-kilometer new area consists of 20 townships formerly belonging to the cities of Guiyang and Anshun. It is designed as a new economic driver and a demonstration area for opening-up and eco-friendly development in Guizhou province.
Since its establishment, the local authorities have made big data and its related electronics industry a priority for development.
According to the general development plan for the new area released by the local government, Guians goal is to develop a green data center with international influence, a nationally leading innovation and application base for big data, an intelligent IT terminals manufacturing base in western China, an integrated circuit production base and a hub for cross-border big data transactions.
A green data center refers to facilities for the data storage and management in which the mechanical, lighting, electrical and computer systems are designed for maximum energy efficiency and minimum environmental impact.
In addition, the plan also highlights big data-led information and electronics sectors as well as such industries as e-commerce, software outsourcing, smart city development and internet-based finance.
Construction of the new area has gone smoothly in the past years.
According to the local government, more than 400 enterprises had registered in the new area by the end of 2015.
Total output value of the big data-led information industries reached 14.29 billion yuan ($2.2 billion) in 2015, growing about 160 percent from the previous year. The value hit 3.6 billion yuan in the first three months this year.
From January 2015 to March 2016, a total of 1.96 billion yuan had been invested in infrastructure construction, as 34 key projects were well underway, laying a solid foundation for the areas future development.
Big projects
Renowned companies from home and abroad have opened or plan to open operations in Guian, including Foxconn, Huawei, Qualcomm, China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, Microsoft, IBM, Sina and Centrin Data Systems.
Famous IT original equipment manufacturer Foxconn has a green industry park in Guian. From January 2015 to March 2016, the facility produced 7.3 billion yuan worth of products, including smartphones for the Huawei, Xiaomi and Meizu brands.
Foxconn said its output value is expected to reach 10 billion yuan this year, creating more than 20,000 jobs.
The countrys three biggest telecom operators China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom have data centers in Guian. With the completion of their first-phase construction last year, these facilities now can accommodate more than 100,000 servers.
On March 2, Guian New Area held an investment promotion in Beijing, signing agreements for 16 big projects worth 16.1 billion yuan in investment with domestic and overseas investors. The projects include big data centers for medical imaging, modern agriculture and cloud-based payment, and also cover such fields as smart manufacturing and internet-plus automaking.
Local authorities expect the big data industry will have great significance for Guians development.
Ma Changqing, Party chief and head of the administrative committee of Guian New Area, said the big data industry will play an important role in helping Guian build a modern industrial system, create more jobs and improve administrative efficiency by developing a smart city and communities.
Ma said Guian has recently launched a smart city operation center, using a cloud platform to facilitate the administration for a range of sectors including medical care, social welfare, education, transportation, tourism, environmental protection and poverty relief.
The center can lead to a better connection between the government and residents and help people access more public resources, Ma said.
zhaoshijun@chinadaily.com.cn
(China Daily 05/16/2016 page10)
