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China moves ahead with big East, West data center strategy

english.guiyang.gov.cn|Updated: 2021-10-15

China is pushing forward with its ambitious "Eastern Data and Western Computing Project" – a network of data center hubs to address information infrastructure imbalance between east and west – in order to build a new computing network system and push forward with the development of its economy in digital times.

The Eastern Data and Western Computing Project has been described as a new national data center strategy, designed to progress and expand the scale of China's digital economy and achieve ambitious green development goals.

The country established an Eastern Data and Western Computing Industry Alliance in September of 2020 and began node construction for the computing network in May 2021.

The project is being carried out in its western regions, such as Guizhou and Gansu provinces and the Ningxia Hui autonomous region. A new computing development pattern with Chinese characteristics is reportedly taking form.

The project is expected to relieve energy constraints in its eastern region, while creating a development road for the western region.

Despite the eastern region being closer to customers and having vast market needs, it is more difficult for it to build data centers there due to the limits on energy consumption and high cost of electronic electric power. The western region, on the other hand, is more suitable for data center construction thanks to its rich energy supplies and favorable climate.

The project is designed to make better use of data resources in the eastern region and the energy supplies of the west region.

Yu Shiyang, director of Big Data Development Department of State Information Center, said the project would combine with the West-to-East Power Transmission Project and build large-scale data centers in northwestern regions, to further explore clean energy and reduce power consumption and dioxide emission.

Guizhou, an important node in the new computing network system, has reportedly taken this opportunity and exerted every effort to develop its data industry. Ma Ningyu, head of Big Data Development Administration of Guizhou Province, said the province would explore ways to further capitalize on the computing resources in Guizhou and the data resources in the east and create a new ecosystem for digital cooperation.

The Huawei Cloud Data Center, in Guizhou's Guian New Area, is reportedly a typical example of the Eastern Data and Western Computing Project. Its services are available to surrounding regions – including Chongqing municipality, and Guangdong, Yunnan and Sichuan provinces. The center is designed to be Huawei's global data management and storage center, an IT maintenance engineer training base and an employee training base.

It will employ about 800 IT maintenance engineers and provide training for more than 10,000 people per year.

The center is seen as both promoting the development of data-related industries and creating more jobs for local people.

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