Guiyang transforms from “an unknown city” to “China’s big data valley”
“Ten years ago, nobody would believe it when you told anyone that big data were possible in Guizhou. But today, I think that’s what’s happening here. As Jack Ma predicated, the “miracle” has changed the image of Guizhou as a “poverty-stricken household” and transformed its provincial capital Guiyang into a “Chinese big data valley” catching the attention of millions.
Height determines the realm, realm decides the pattern, and pattern shapes the future. If Guiyang was groping along the road of “big data valley”, showing its emerging signs from 2013 to early 2015, the achievements made by “China’s big data valley” presented to us was turning out for the best during the period from 2016 to 2018.
When big data collide with an underdeveloped city in the southwest, it is like fish getting to the water and eagle travelling in the sky. Throughout the development history of Guizhou, it is just like the miniature of human civilization development from exclusiveness to openness to the later surpassing. In this new paradigm of development, Guiyang, as the provincial capital city, has provided the world with lively “Guiyang practices” with its innovative “vision field” and “mind”.
2013 is not only the milestone when big data steps down from the altar, but also the “first year of big data era” in the world.
When Chinese inland still adopts a wait-and-see attitude, pondering over “big data”, a new force of big data has suddenly risen in the southwest China. Guiyang - the once dubbed the capital of “no sense of presence” has grasped this historic opportunity incisively, riding on the momentum by observing the times and judging the occasion. With a forward-looking and strategic reflection on big data, it plots out a scientific win-win new road in conformity to its own development need.
As the economic hub in central Guizhou, Guiyang, with scarce ecological environment resources, is located in north latitude 26°, the “best belt” on earth. Since it has an average elevation of 1200 meters and a surrounding of forest, it is free from the severe cold in winder, intense heat of summer with abundant rainfalls, fine air quality, stable geologic structure and rich hydropower resources...These are the advantages for Guiyang to catch up with others. Endowed with such merits, Guiyang, as a scroll to be painted, leaves a broad space for the pioneers. With “confidence”, Guiyang starts to fulfill its potential in the innovation-driven development road of big data.
In September 2013, Guiyang introduced resources from “Beijing” into “Guizhou” to make up for the weaknesses, joining hands with Zhongguancun to build “Zhongguancun Guiyang Science and Technology Park”. The injection of “science and technology factors” has become a “new engine” for the upgrade of traditional industries in Guiyang. Established enterprises in Beijing have signed 106 cooperation projects with regions (cities and counties) in Guiyang, with a total investment of 46.5 billion yuan. On October 21, the China Telecom Cloud Computing Guizhou Information Park project with a total investment of 7 billion yuan commenced in Gui’an New Area. As a gathering place of information industry, it is turned into the core of national cloud computing data center strategies for public service, social management and economic construction layout. On the same day, Foxconn’s G4 green industrial park started construction in Gui’an New Area. From October to December, China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom signed contracts with Guizhou provincial government respectively, and the big data centers of three major communication operators settled in Guizhou. Thus far, Guiyang has soared and successfully taken over the commanding elevation of big data development.
On March 1, 2014, Promotion Conference for Guizhou-Beijing Big Data Industry Development was held in Beijing, and Guiyang became the first provincial capital city in China to promote the topic of big data industry.
On March 27, 2014, the 4th Industrial Development Alliance Assembly of China’s Big Data Center and IDC Product Display and Resource Negotiation and Transaction Conference was held, and Guiyang was named as “the most suitable city for data center investment”, which forebodes that Guiyang has transformed into a benchmark city for the development of big data.
In June 2014, Guizhou Provincial People’s Government established Guizhou provincial leading group for big data industry development, followed by the Big Data Bureau (Committee) successively established by Guizhou Province and Guiyang City, aiming to develop the big data industry synchronously and solve problems encountered in the promotion process.
On August 21, 2014, the grand unveiling ceremony of “Guiyang Cloud Computing - Big Data Summit Forum and Big Data Industrial Technical Alliance 2014” was held in Guiyang. This forum marks that Guiyang has been able to hold joint discussions in relation to the development future of big data industry with Dell, Intel, Oracle, Huawei and other well-known enterprises at home and abroad.
On February 12, 2015, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology approved the establishment of Guiyang • Gui’an Big Data Industrial Development Cluster, and the first National Big Data Development Cluster was officially settled in Guizhou. Guiyang and Gui’an have hereby officially become the forerunners in the blue ocean of financial big data.
On April 14, 2015, Guiyang Big Data Exchange, the first domestic big data exchange, was officially put into operation with the trading completion of the first batch of big data. The exchange took the lead in promoting the exploration of data interconnection and sharing, aiming to drive the development of related industries including big data cleaning, mining and application.
On May 1, 2015, the first phase of Guiyang universal free WiFi project was put into operation. After searching for the “D-guiyang” signal and connecting in Zhucheng Square, Exhibition Center and other places, citizens can surf online freely. As an important component of Guiyang’s urban “block” data aggregation platform and information people-benefit project, the free WiFi project has substantially led the city into the era of big data.
On May 24, 2015, the annual conference for regional cooperation driven by innovation was held in Beijing when the nameplate of the key laboratory of big data strategy jointly established by Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission and Guiyang Municipal People’s Government was unveiled.
From May 26 to 29, 2015, the global first big data-themed summit and exhibition - Guiyang International Big Data Expo and Big Data Era Guiyang Summit (Big Data Expo 2015) was successfully held in Guiyang, through which the voice of big data in Guiyang has been transmitted to all corners of the world.
On July 15, 2015, the Ministry of Science and Technology formally replied to the People’s Government of Guizhou Province, agreeing to support Guizhou Province to carry out the trial construction of “Guiyang Big Data Industry Technology Innovation Pilot Zone”. With a planning area of 60 square kilometers, the zone takes Guiyang National High-tech Industrial Development Zone, Guiyang National Economic and Technological Development Zone, Guiyang Free Trade Zone and Guizhou Shuanglong Airport Economic Zone as the core.
On August 12, 2015, Guiyang Big Data Industry Development Leading Group meeting was held, which stressed the need to formulate and implement the action plan for Guiyang big data, actively promoting the “ten major projects” and striving to build Guiyang into a “China’s Big Data Valley” carrying connotations of big data content center, service center and financial center.
On August 31, 2015, the State Council issued Action Outline for Promoting Big Data Development, which clearly defined the “promotion of the construction of National Big Data (Guizhou) Comprehensive Pilot Zone”, when the development of big data industry in Guizhou was officially elevated to a national strategy.
On September 18, 2015, Guizhou Province released a press conference to officially launch the construction of National Big Data (Guizhou) Comprehensive Pilot Zone. By focusing on application innovation in Guiyang and Gui’an as the main “pilot fields”, the integrative development of big data is daily deepening. With industrial agglomeration and acceleration of resource flows, the big data industry grows rapidly and new international platforms spring up one by one.
At the same time, a series of industry supporting policies such as Guizhou Cloud Computing Industry Development Strategy Planning, Opinions on Speeding up the Several Policies of Big Data Industry Development and Application, Layout Plan for the Big Data Industry Development and Application in Guizhou Province (2014-2020), Regulations on Information Infrastructure of Guizhou Province, Implementation Plans for Three-year Battles of Guizhou Information Infrastructure Construction, Implementation Opinions to Speed up the Talent Team Construction of Big Data Industry and Three-year Plan to Boost the Big Data Industry Development of Gui’an New Area (2015-2017) are formulated in succession, strongly facilitating the development of big data.
In the three years from 2013 to 2015, from a follower to a forerunner, Guiyang has led the other countries in the development of cutting-edge industries for the first time. Its exposure rate was closely tied up to the seemingly incompatible “big data”. People were astonished by the tremendous changes taking place in Guiyang and the unbelievable changes brought by big data, which exactly verified the vitality burst in this city. In 2013, Guiyang’s GDP reached 208.542 billion yuan with an increase of 16.0%. In 2014 and 2015, the GDPs reached 249.727 and 289.116 billion yuan respectively, growing by 13.9% plus a rise of 12.5 percent. The vigorous growth of endogenous power is turned into a bright prospect for Guiyang’s urban economic development. Therefore, just as what General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that “the big data development in Guizhou indeed makes sense”, and Premier Li Keqiang commented that “Guizhou gives birth to ‘nothing’”. Guiyang - once “an unknown city”, is undergoing a gorgeous counterattack relying on the new round of scientific and technological innovation wave towards the “Big Data Valley in China”.
As of 2018, there were more than 5,000 big data enterprises in Guiyang with the main business income of big data enterprises throughout the city breaking through 100 billion yuan, a year-on-year growth of 22.4%. 50 big data enterprises were newly increased in the city with the total number exceeding 220. The fusion index of big data and substantial economy reached 45.3, while the contribution rate to economic growth of new kinetic energy represented by big data reached 33%. Guiyang’s trend growth ranked first among provincial capitals in China for five consecutive years. The gross big data talents in the city reached 175,000. The municipal government data achieved 100% sharing and exchange with the opening level of government data running at the top nationwide. The government system has 100% access to the “Guizhou on the Digital Cloud” platform, and the Internet + government service platform has become the top ten excellent innovation cases of national government website in 2018. Guiyang Big Data Exchange, the first big data exchange in China, has set up branches in 12 provinces with access to 225 high-quality data sources, more than 4,000 tradable data products, gross transaction amount over 100 million yuan, and the transaction framework agreement amount topping 300 million yuan. In 2018, among the major investment projects in big data with a scale of 100 million yuan (230 projects of 100million yuan and above) incorporated in the monitoring and scheduling of Guizhou Big Data Bureau, Guiyang has accounted for 51. The city has invested 2.76 billion yuan in digital facilities. It is estimated that in 2018, a business revenue of 13.8 billion yuan will be made out of the five million caliber software under Municipal Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. The gross telecommunications services will reach 35.5 billion yuan, growing by 140%.
“Ten years ago, nobody would believe it when you told anyone that big data were possible in Guizhou. But today, I think that’s what’s happening here.” As Jack Ma predicated, the “miracle” has changed the image of Guizhou as a “poverty-stricken household” and transformed its provincial capital Guiyang into a “Chinese big data valley” catching the attention of millions. Guiyang’s GDP is expected to reach 389.1 billion yuan in 2018 with a rise of 10 percent, according to the Guiyang Government Work Report in 2019. The economic growth rate has ranked the first among provincial capitals in China for six consecutive years (2013-2018) and won the title of “cities with an impact on China” in 2018. The full coverage of urban 4G network makes the city among the first batch of national 5G application demonstrations, and selected among the excellent cities of “Broadband China”. The tradable data amount of Guiyang Big Data Exchange exceeds 150PB. Guiyang big data and network security attack and defense drill is successfully held. Guiyang Economic and Technological Development Zone becomes the first big data security certification demonstration plot in China... On the whole, scientific and technological progress contributes 61% to the economic growth.
Within just six years, the underdeveloped southwestern small city has transformed to be strong enough, catching the eyes of numerous international “big names” such as Oracle, Google, Intel, Apple, Microsoft, IBM, HP, Dell, Foxconn and other Fortune Global 500 companies to settle in Guiyang. Domestic leading Internet companies such as Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu, CETC, YOUE, Huawei, JD, Qihoo 360, iFlyTek join hands in Guiyang successively, among which a host of native excellent enterprises, such as Manbang Group (the “unicorn” of China’s logistics industry), Longmaster, East Century, Esgyn have sprung up.
