A worker maintains equipment at China Mobile's data center in a cloud computing base in Zhongwei City, northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, May 31, 2019. (Xinhua/Wang Peng)
BEIJING, April 8 (Xinhua) -- China is seeing the bustling construction of a number of data centers and 5G projects, as central and local governments are speeding up deploying new infrastructure.
The move is not only a key measure to stabilize economic fundamentals, but also an investment targeting long-term growth and the transformation of economic development mode, according to industry insiders.
China will continue developing new infrastructure in advance and expand application scenarios to keep releasing the vitality of digital economy.
-- Projects under construction
In the China Unicom (Huailai) innovation industrial park located in Huailai County of Zhangjiakou City in north China's Hebei Province, a supersized data center that can accommodate 22,500 standard cabinets is being constructed.
Staff members are moving on faster to ensure the principal part of the project can be delivered by the end of June, said an executive of China Unicom, one of China's leading telecom operators, adding that upon completion, the data center will provide computing services for industrial internet companies, financial securities enterprises, etc. in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.
In Zhongwei City of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in northwest China, construction of the phase II of the data center project of China Mobile, another telecom giant in China, has been fully unfolded, with a capacity of more than 3,000 racks on completion.
China Mobile will invest 334 million yuan in the data center in three years to improve intelligent application of data in various industries, Duan Li, executive of the computing network operation center of China Mobile in Ningxia.
China is also witnessing an accelerated application of new infrastructure. There are more than 2,000 5G + industrial internet projects under construction across the country, with new digital formats and models such as smart mining, smart transportation, smart greenhouse and telemedicine emerging one after another.
The popularity of new infrastructure can also be seen in the development plan for 2022 of many places. More than 20 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities including Shandong and Guangdong have specified the development plans of 5G network, industrial internet and data center in 2022.
-- Promoting healthy development of digital economy
The reason why China endeavors to promote construction of new infrastructure such as 5G network, artificial intelligence, and big data is to propel the healthy development of digital economy.
Although economic development is facing downward pressure, digital economy as a whole is still relatively robust, said He Baohong, director of cloud computing and big data institute of China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), adding that in the first two months, the production index of information transmission, software and information technology services increased by 16.3 percent year on year, indicating the urgent demand of economic development for digital infrastructure.
He said that new infrastructure represented by 5G and data center is the base and cornerstone for the development of digital economy. Building a solid digital foundation will help further release the potential of digital economy in boosting consumer demand, expanding foreign trade and stimulating effective investment.
The role of new infrastructure in driving economy can be reflected by data from the CAICT. For example, the total economic output indirectly driven by the commercial use of 5G in China is expected to amount to 24.8 trillion yuan from 2020 to 2025, according to a research by CAICT.
Looking ahead, Zhang Zhiqian, director of the investment research institute of China Jianyin Investment Ltd., said that with 5G, industrial internet and other next generation information technologies fully embedded in all fields of economic development, new infrastructure will transform technologies into productivity and then to growth engine, further driving industrial transformation and upgrading.
-- Deployment in advance
Multiple departments have taken a series of measures to deploy new infrastructure in advance.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has made it clear that efforts will be made to build more 5G base stations this year, with application scenarios enriched.
The National Development and Reform Commission proposed to accelerate the construction of 10 national data center clusters.
Meanwhile, local governments also roll out preferential policy packages regarding capital, land use and other resource elements for new infrastructure construction.
For example, Shanghai will make good use of more than 100 billion yuan of new infrastructure credit at preferential interest rate to guide social capital to increase investment in new infrastructure, while southwest China's Yunnan Province will coordinate the implementation of preferential policies concerning land use for information and communication infrastructure as well as power consumption for data centers and 5G network.
To seize opportunities brought by the development of digital economy, priority will be given to the application of new infrastructure. For instance, the MIIT will focus on promoting the use of 5G in 15 industries in three areas of information consumption, real economy and people's livelihood services during the 14th Five-Year Plan period from 2021 to 2025.
Some industry insiders call for new paths to spur vitality of digital economy. He Baohong said that efforts need to be made to further guide the whole society and all industries to strengthen the application of 5G and industrial internet, with focus on promoting the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries and improving production and operation efficiency. (Edited by Su Dan with Xinhua Silk Road, sudan@xinhua.org)
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