China pushes nationwide buildout of new ‘big data’ centres to speed up digital transformation of industries
- When the new infrastructure is in place, China will be able to develop an ‘industrial data trading market’
- The initiative comes amid Beijing’s efforts to accelerate the roll-out of digital infrastructure across the country
China is doubling down on the digital transformation of its economy with a plan to build “industrial big data” centres nationwide, enabling massive amounts of information – mostly production data – to be used for developing more efficient industries.
That strategy was unveiled in a directive on Wednesday by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), which called on local authorities in 23 provinces, five autonomous regions and four municipalities to support the establishment of these new big data centres, which will help bolster efforts to upgrade the country’s manufacturing sector.
The MIIT said these new facilities would also support the transformation of other sectors, including those involved in raw materials, consumer products and digital information. It also encouraged enterprises in these sectors to move past “technical barriers”, enabling the processing of data from various sources.
When the new infrastructure is in place, China will be able to “cultivate an industrial data trading market”, the ministry said, adding that pilot programmes for “data assets trading” will be carried out. It did not provide a timetable for the roll-out of facilities, data trading or the amount of funding these local governments would require for the initiative.
The ministry did not immediately respond to faxed questions for comment on Friday.
