Japanese media: Guizhou has become a model of growth in the new era

According to Japanese media, Guizhou Province was once considered as one of the poorest provinces in China. In recent years, however, Guizhou Province achieved an average annual economic growth rate of 11.5% (2010-2018) in the context of the overall slowdown in China's economy. It has been a model of growth in the new era of China's economy, along with Chongqing and Yunnan.

According to an article in the June 29 issue of Japan's Diamond weekly, more than 90% of the terrain in Guizhou Province is mountainous, and is a karst terrain formed by limestone. Due to long-term erosion, the more flat part of the terrain is split by small laccolites. The former major industry in Guizhou Province was agriculture, mostly with edible wild herbs, mushrooms, tea and other non-staple foods, which are very low in terms of high added value. In addition to the nationally renowned Moutai, there were traditionally only a few military industries led by the aircraft industry.

The author of the article was based in China from 2008 to 2010 and visited Guizhou Province several times. According to the article, at that time, the inland areas of Guizhou Province were blocked by valleys so only the self-sufficient economy could be maintained. Even the provincial capital of Guiyang could only attract few foreign companies to settle in, with large enterprises that were limited to industries such as brewing, military, banking and electric power.

About 10 years later, the situation has changed a lot. One reason is that Guizhou Province has been accelerating the construction of high-standard roads and high-speed railways since 2012, and another reason is that Guizhou Province has been taking active steps to cultivate the big data industry.

Guizhou Province has accelerated the construction of roads, railways, tunnels and bridges, enabling the rapid integration of the province's economy. The expressways have improved the transportation between Guizhou Province and the coastal areas, especially those around Shanghai and Guangdong Province. High-quality materials can be now transported from these areas to Guizhou Province, allowing the wholesale market in the city to be rich in commodities. Today's Guiyang is full of high-rise buildings, and there is not much difference between Guiyang and the metropolises in the coastal areas in terms of scenery.

According to the article, two years ago, Guiyang was still in the stage of 4G adoption. In spite of a narrowed gap in information, there were not many foreign-owned food and beverage outlets and clothing stores, giving the impression that there was still very large gap in material. But now, in Guiyang we can see row upon row of fast food restaurants, Japanese restaurants, and stores operating European, American and Japanese brands, basically leading to the disappearance of the gap in material with coastal cities.

In the big data industry, Guiyang has now outstripped other data hubs such as Shanghai, Qingdao and Wuhan, ranking first in the country in terms of data collection and accumulation. Guiyang hosted the China International Big Data Industry Expo for the first time in 2015 when the cities such as Shanghai, Beijing and Wuhan were at the forefront of the big data industry. However, with the progressive adoption of 4G, the amount of data in Guiyang has increased explosively since 2017, and since then Guiyang has been receiving attention due to its stable temperature throughout the year and abundance in electric power resources, as well as the government's active action to introduce enterprises and talents. Microsoft and Japan-based NTT Corporation have become representative companies in Guiyang.

From May 26 to 29, The China International Big Data Industry Expo 2019 was held in Guizhou Province. The local government hopes to strengthen technologies such as service robots and industrial Internet of Things based on big data. Guizhou Province is exploring the path moving from the 2.0 model of infrastructure construction to the 3.0 model of big data collection and accumulation and towards the 4.0 model of big data application.