Big data expo spells opportunities for global firms

GUIYANG — The 2025 China International Big Data Industry Expo became a platform for global enterprises to showcase their latest developments, share experiences and exchange expertise in AI, as well as being a zone for international supply-demand partnerships.

The three-day expo, which ended on Aug 30 in Guiyang, capital of Southwest China's Guizhou province, featured a diverse range of exchanges and activities, and attracted more than 16,000 guests as well as 375 enterprises.

Lars Nagel, CEO of the Germany-based International Data Spaces Association, has increased the frequency of his visits to China over the past two years. He views China as one of the front-runners in data-space strategies, and one of the world's leading countries in pursuing the data economy, Nagel told Xinhua News Agency.

Nagel said he noticed that over the past year, clear rules and policies on data sharing have been in place in China, which has allowed enterprises to understand what they can do in terms of cross-border data sharing.

The association is currently running data-space pilot projects between China and Germany, and they are working "pretty well", he said.

"China is a big market with a lot of global, powerful players. And what is even more remarkable is that the Chinese data strategy is really a comprehensive one. It's like a lighthouse in global data strategies to embrace data as a production factor and make use of data for society and for business at the same time," he said.

Nagel's association has a network of more than 180 companies from all over the world. He looks forward to working with the province closely, and to figuring out how to connect data and generate value out of it.

As the country's first national comprehensive big data pilot zone, Guizhou now has 49 data centers in operation or under construction, working for enterprises including Apple, Huawei and Tencent, as well as scientific research projects like the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope, which is also known as the "China Sky Eye".

According to the Development Report on Digital Guizhou (2024), which was released earlier this month, the scale of the province's digital industry topped 250 billion yuan ($35.2 billion) last year, growing 18.3 percent year-on-year, and the number of people employed in the sector stood at 163,000.

Guizhou's digital economy is taking the lead nationwide and has ranked among the top players across the country for nine consecutive years.

Located in the hinterland of Southwest China, Guizhou has a favorable cool climate all year round, providing naturally air-conditioned rooms for busy heat-emitting servers. The province is also situated away from major earthquake zones, making it safe for data reservoirs.

Liu Liehong, head of the National Data Administration, said at the expo's opening ceremony that the construction and operating costs of data centers in western China are approximately 50 percent to 70 percent of those in eastern China.

Sven Loeffler, director of data spaces and products at T-Systems International GmbH in Deutsche Telekom, attended the expo in Guizhou for a second consecutive year.

With 25 years of experience in the field, he has observed that China has taken data spaces and big data seriously over the past three to four years, with a five-year plan to implement its data strategies. This attracted him to attend the expo in Guizhou last year, and this year he wanted to see how they had developed over the past 12 months, Loeffler said.

He noted that his company has had a partnership with China for years, and that he has a few customers who are really looking to establish cross-border data exchange mechanisms. He has used the expo as an opportunity to formulate an action item for the NDA, and to work collaboratively on practical examples.

During his visit to China, he said that he had been impressed by how many data initiatives were running in different provinces of China, and that the country is taking the sector seriously by releasing specific use cases, motivating and enabling industry players and regions to gain real business benefits out of these initiatives. "This was new for me. This was so concrete, already visible," he added.

Japanese national Morii Go, chairman of Yamazen Shanghai Trading Co Ltd, said that Yamazen has been deeply rooted in the Chinese market since 2002, and has served more than 10,000 enterprises in China.

"The expo attracts many industry professionals and potential partners, which is conducive to expanding our business network in China," Morii said, adding that the company came to China to explore cooperation opportunities in industrial internet data services and internet of things technology services for smart manufacturing upgrades.

"China is the world's most dynamic major manufacturing country, and also a source of innovation in the intelligent and digital industries," Morii said. "Yamazen will continue to introduce the most cutting-edge technologies and solutions to China, and jointly innovate with Chinese partners to move forward hand in hand toward a new future of intelligent manufacturing."

Xinhua