Big data injects new driving force for high-quality development of Guizhou

In Guiyang, capital of southwestern China's inland province of Guizhou, there is a "Big Data Expo Boulevard" across Yunyan District, Guiyang National High-tech Industrial Development Zone, Guanshanhu District and Baiyun District. With a planned total length of some 20 kilometers, it showcases the brilliant outcomes of Guiyang's big data industry: Big Data Finance City, Big Data Industry City, Big Data Health City…Guiyang aiming to build "China Data Valley" is an epitome of Guizhou, China's first national big data comprehensive pilot zone.

In 2013 known as the first year of big data, many cities proposed to develop the big data industry, but more were still waiting. In March 2014, Guizhou seized the opportunity to first start developing big data.

There was a lack of foundation across the country and a small gap between different areas then, but with innate advantages such as good ecology, cool climate, sufficient power and stable geology, as well as late-mover advantages such as large fault tolerance for innovation and few restrictions, Guizhou forged ahead in the blue ocean of big data more bravely, Ma Ningyu, Big Data Development Administration of Guizhou Province, said when he recollected Guizhou's big data development.

Then Guizhou first released complete concepts and top-level design for big data development such as the Opinion on Policies for Accelerating the Development and Application of the Big Data Industry and the Outline of the Plan for the Development and Application of Guizhou's Big Data Industry (2014-2020), thus gradually becoming a pacesetter and pathfinder in big data development.

Within a few years, Guizhou achieved several firsts in big data development: Guizhou established China's first provincial governmental data aggregation, sharing and opening platform: Guizhou-Cloud Big Data System, set a precedent for big data legislation, established the world's first big data exchange and inaugurated China's first state laboratory of big data engineering.

Domestic and overseas leading Internet enterprises like Apple, Microsoft, Alibaba, Huawei and Tencent have settled in Guizhou. According to statistics, the number of Guizhou's big data enterprises has soared from nearly 1,000 in 2013 to over 9,500 in 2018.

When Apple chose Guizhou, Apple Vice President Lisa Jackson hailed Guizhou as the most promising place for data center construction in China.

The big data industry has clustered in Guizhou, boosted the growth of Guizhou's big data enterprises and gradually become industrial models. Guiyang-based Manbang has become a leading general service platform for cargo transport via trunk roads and highways in China and the world; BaishanCloud's CCX covers over 300 Chinese cities and serves 70 percent of Chinese Internet users, making BaishanCloud a world top service provider; the "East Auspicious Clouds" weather forecast platform developed by Guizhou East Century Science and Technology Co., Ltd. has provided flood early warning service for many areas in China.

The added value of Guizhou's digital economy increased by 24.6 percent in 2018, ranking first in China for the fourth consecutive year and first in job creation for the second consecutive year.

In 2018, Guizhou mapped out the strategy of implementing the "enterprise integration" action, to promote the deep integrated development of big data and the real economy. Meanwhile, it sped up the integration of big data with the real economy, rural rejuvenation, people's livelihood service and social governance.

"Our old production lines have been intelligentized through cloud net control to save manpower and improve the rate of superior products," said Xi Jianjun, Chairman of Guizhou Yaguang Electronics Technology Co., Ltd. who attributed the enterprise's quality improvement to the integration with big data.

Guiyang Nanming Laoganma Food Co., Ltd. has used big data to accomplish fine management and exported bottles of chili sauce to the world; the production efficiency of the intelligent fully-mechanized mining face of Faer Coal Mine, Liupanshui has improved by 47 percent.