China to expand domestic cloud computing sector

China is set to accelerate its steps to expand the domestic cloud computing sector, as the cloud computing technology has become a strong support for the manufacturing and internet industry, experts said on Wednesday.

Chen Zhaoxiong, vice-minister of industry and information technology, said ahead of the ninth China Cloud Computing Conference that, with the fast-evolving cloud computing market, the next key step was to seek breakthroughs in core technology research and the application.

"The cloud computing technologies are driving the development of the booming digital economy."

"To grasp the opportunities, we should build strengths on cutting-edge cloud computing technologies and establish manufacturing innovations centers as well as encouraging software companies to embrace the upgrading for cloud computing."

Mei Hong, academician of Chinese Academy of Science, said the application of clouding computing will become mainstream among the fast-growing information industry in the next decades.

"Data is the third strategic resource for the development of human society. And we are now entering a new age where software technologies and applications will permeate and shape our lives at every turn."

The country’s cloud computing industry reached a market size of 150 billion yuan （$22 billion) in 2015, and is expected to worth 430 billion yuan by 2019, according to a recent government plan by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

According to the plan, China will expand the presence of the Chinese cloud computing companies in the global market, and expect that two or three of them will lead the market in the next three years.

Hosted by Chinese Institute of Electronics, the ninth China Cloud Computing Conference will start from Wednesday to Friday.