A Discussion on Guiyang: Still the Green Mountains, Gone the Old City

On the afternoon of April 1, 2019, Conference on Big Data Development Work of Guiyang was held in Guanshanhu District. The meeting conveyed the important instructions of Mayor of Guiyang Chen Yan, informed the overall situation of big data development in the city in 2018, analyzed the current situation and challenges of the development of big data in Guiyang, and comprehensively arranged the main work priorities in 2019. At the meeting, the Guiyang Municipal Government signed the “2019 Guiyang Big Data Development Goals Responsibility Letter” with the governments and management committee (of municipalities, counties, development zones) as well as the Big Data group to further strengthen the management of big data development goals, form contract mechanism, better implement the responsibility of supervision on construction, which laid a solid foundation for realizing the city’s big data strategy development.
In the instructions, Chen Yan pointed out that in the past year, under the strong leadership of the provincial committees of the CPC, the provincial government, the municipal party committee and the municipal government, Guiyang has been determined to make innovations, work hard, and deepen the strategic action of big data. Therefore, the digital economy is booming and showing a good momentum of accelerating growth, improving quality, promoting improvement and good benefits, which has made positive contributions to Guiyang’s high-quality development.
Chen Yan emphasized that in the new year we should thoroughly implement the principles from General Secretary Xi Jinping’s greeting message to the International Big Data Industry Expo in 2018 and the major expositions on the national Big Data strategy, and serve Guiyang’s greater needs of high standards, high level of openness, and high quality development. We are determined to implement the Big Data strategic action, adhere to the “four enhancements” and “four integrations”, closely follow the development vision of “one product, one industry, and one thriving economy”, and focus on the goals of building “China Valley” and “the Core Area of the National Big Data (Guizhou) Comprehensive Pilot Zone”. We ought to establish the five systems of big data industry, big data applications, big data regulations, big data standards and big data security, work on the five major new areas of artificial intelligence, quantum information, mobile communications, Internet of Things and blockchain, hold International Big Data Industry Expo in 2019 at a high level, and construct the Big Data Expo Avenue with high standards. In this way, we strive to make big data into a powerful engine to lead the high-quality development of Guiyang’s economy and society and celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of New China with outstanding achievements!
“At the just-concluded ‘Two Sessions’, the development of big data in Guizhou Province triggered a heated discussion among the deputies and got the thumbs-ups from major media. Inevitably, Guiyang had made important contributions to these achievements.” Ma Ningyu fully recognized the achievements of big data development in Guiyang in recent years.
Guizhou is the first National Big Data Comprehensive Pilot Zone, and Guiyang has been approved for the “Golden Signboards” of a National Big Data Gathering Zone and a Big Data Technological Innovation Pilot Zone. Guizhou Province undertakes the task of exploring the national big data strategy, and Guiyang City also shoulders the responsibility of creating concepts, systems, and initiatives for our big data development. Since 2014, this small town in the southwest has taken the lead in the shackles and has risen to the challenge in the thorns, holding high the banner of big data development, catching up with all the way, advancing triumphantly, and sending a strong message of the big data to develop strong sounds, and thus completed a beautiful transformation from the western mountain city one of “the old revolutionary base areas, areas inhabited by ethnic minorities, remote areas, and impoverished areas” to the “China’s Big Data valley”. Guiyang, the city once with no sense of presence, is now full of vitality.
Guiyang regards Big Data as a strategic choice to promote transformation and upgrading, builds an upgraded version of economic and social development, and actively seeks to locate and contribute to the overall development of the province. Its successful practice has suddenly played the leading role of “locomotive” and “engine”—“people cannot talk about big data without mentioning Guizhou or Guiyang”. It turns out that Guiyang has become a highland for the development of big data in China and the world: its big data industry takes a large proportion in Guiyang Province, its data sharing and opening up is at the forefront of the country, Guiyang leads the country in the big data local legislation and standards, its big data entrepreneurial innovation is flourishing, and “Big Data Expo Avenue” and other big data key projects are proceeding smoothly and orderly……
At present, the world is facing changes unprecedented in the past 100 years that the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation has accelerated in its evolution. As the central government has proposed the construction of “Digital China”, digital development has been carried out throughout the country, and Guizhou which is in the midst of the blue ocean of Big Data took the construction of “Digital Guizhou” as an initiative to implement the relevant spirit of the central government and proposed five major battles of the digital economy, digital governance, digital livelihood, digital facilities, and digital security. These five major battles are scientific thinking based on the “Digital China” evaluation index system and can specifically prioritize the Big Data strategic action and the construction of “Digital Guizhou”. “We are building the ‘Digital Guizhou Work Platform’ and strive to promote the Big Data strategic action at a higher level, at a quicker pace, and in a deeper aspect. We are going to continue taking the lead in the construction of ‘Digital Guizhou’ to make contributions and push the development of big data to a new level.” Ma Ningyu stressed.
At the meeting, Ma Ningyu said that in order to build “Digital Guizhou”, Guiyang needs to set an example in seven aspects: the first is to promote deep integration; the second is to explore new fields of big data; the third is to promote the construction of “one cloud, one network and one platform”; the fourth is to accelerate the construction of new smart cities; the fifth is to construct digital facilities; the sixth is to create more “Guiyang’s brands”; the seventh is to develop the big data “experimental field”.
In the new era, expansion of cooperation is the only path for Guiyang to accelerate development and catch up with other cities. The big data is not only a crucial step but also an unequivocal reply.
In 2018, the GDP of Guiyang increased by 9.9%, and the economic growth rate ranked first in the provincial capital cities for many consecutive years. Xu Hao attributed that to the unswerving implementation of the big data strategic action : “The strong momentum of Guiyang’s economic and social development mainly benefited from our adherence to the two bottom lines of development and ecology, from innovation-driven which has become an endogenous driving force for economic and social development, and from the big data as a strategic choice to promote transformation and upgrading as well as to create an upgraded version of economic and social development.” Focusing on the perfect integration of innovation and ecological development, Guiyang aimed at big data, took the lead in action, led development with innovation, took over on the curve and managed to catch up. This confirmed the success of the innovation-driven development strategy represented by Guiyang’s big data development model and innovative practice and that the strategy has a bright future.
Guiyang is known as the “China’s Big Data Valley”. “This title is of great honor and hard to win.” Xu Hao stressed, “To cherish and build a good ‘China’s Big Data Valley’, we must pay attention to its development and try our best to hold the ‘Big Data Industry Expo’. We also need to concentrate on two key points of ‘improving Big Data innovation capability’ and ‘developing bigger and stronger digital economy’ to work on five new areas of artificial intelligence, quantum information, mobile communications, Internet of Things and blockchain, accelerate the construction of key projects such as the “Big Data Expo Avenue”, and build a ‘China’s Big Data Valley’ with high concentration of the big data industry, deep integration of Big Data and real economy, significant enhancement of big data innovation, accurate policy of big data governance, and accurate and efficient big data service.”
For Guiyang City, if “China Big Data Valley” is a shining “brand name”, and then the “International Big Data Industry Expo” is the window of the world as well as icing on the cake. Since its inception in 2015, the Expo has attracted the attention of the global Big Data industry. Every May, the most influential entrepreneurs, experts and scholars, association organizations, research institutions, and political figures and media from all over the world gather in Guiyang to discuss the future of Big Data. Premier Li Keqiang, Vice Premier Ma Kai and Vice Chairman of the NPC Standing Committee Wang Chen attended the opening ceremony of the Expo in 2015-2018 and delivered speeches. General Secretary Xi Jinping sent a greeting message to the International Big Data Industry Expo in 2018, pointing out that our national Big Data strategy should be fully implemented in the aspects of building a network power, digital China, and a smart society. In order to thoroughly study and implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi’s greeting message, accelerate the construction of “China’s Big Data Valley” and create “the never-ending International Big Data Industry Expos”, the Guiyang Municipal Party Committee and the Municipal Government will build a 20-kilometer “Big Data Expo Avenue” which will be listed as a major landmark project for high-standard opening-up and high-quality development. It is reported that “Big Data Expo Avenue” will be unveiled in the 2019 Expo for the very first time, which will showcase the latest global Big Data achievements and digital city forms in the future. In order to cope with the problems such as the difficulty in building the “Big Data Expo Avenue”, the high requirements and the multitude of work, the Guiyang Municipal Party Committee and the Municipal Government established a leading group for the Construction of the Avenue, with Municipal Party Committee Secretary Zhao Deming and Mayor Chen Yan both as team leaders responsible for researching and settling major issues in the overall construction and direction of the construction of the Avenue. Besides, a headquarters in the charge of the mayor Chen Yan and under the leadership of the leading group was established for the overall planning, coordination and scheduling of the construction of the Avenue. In this massive battle for big data, Guiyang has proved its determination on big data development with practical actions.
With the rapid changes of the era of informationization, the development of big data is either moving forward or falling behind. Time and tide wait for no man, and will today’s “China’s Big Data Valley” thrive as a “star of tomorrow”? Perhaps we can draw a conclusion from the words of Deputy Mayor Xu Hao: “Guiyang will always regard big data as the driving force for innovation and development, take it as a breakthrough point competitive capital, rely on big data to find the pain points of the development of various industries, and then achieve breakthroughs and innovations, ultimately forming a strong development force in various industries and actively serving the national innovation-driven development strategy and national big data strategy.”