A big data center was announced on Wednesday which will be established in the Western Cloud Base in Zhongwei, in Northwest China's Ningxia Hui autonomous region, as the city steps up efforts to further develop its cloud computing industry.

The center, called the People (Zhongwei) Big Data Center, is the 15th data center to enter the cloud base.

Jointly launched by People.cn Co Ltd, the online portal of the People's Daily, and the government of Zhongwei during the 2019 Cloud Computing International Summit, the center aims at enhancing cooperation in cloud computing and big data, taking advantage of the Belt and Road Initiative to build the online Silk Road, and promoting the industrial transformation and high-quality development of Zhongwei.

An adaptation center developed by Shandong-based cloud computing solution and service provider Inspur Group was also launched in the summit. Its goal is to realize the development of information security in the cloud base, and promote the development of information security in Zhongwei.

"China's cloud computing industry has been burgeoning in the past few years, maintaining a 30 percent average annual growth rate. Ningxia, as an important node of the Silk Road Economic Belt, has an obvious regional advantage of developing cloud computing and bid data," Sui Jing, deputy director of the information communication administration of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said.

Li Xiaobo, mayor of Zhongwei, said that "with the city's geology, climate and energy advantages, in recent years, Zhongwei has been taking active measures to build its Western Cloud Base into one of the country's major agglomeration areas for a data center. The measures include improving supporting infrastructure, implementing green projects, and accelerating major data center construction."

According to Li, there were 200,000 servers in the cloud base at this time, and the accumulated investment into fixed assets totaled 6.47 billion yuan ($911.8 million).

The added-value of the information transmission, computer services and software industry in the base surged by 31.8 percent year-on-year, contributing to 14.4 percent of the area's gross domestic product. The cloud computing industrial chain led in the investment of more than 3 billion yuan, and generated jobs for 3,000 people.

"The city serves as a great example of transforming the sands of the Gobi into a hot land for innovative development," Li said.

Ma Li, president of the China Internet Development Foundation, noted that with the rapid development of China's internet industry, Zhongwei tapped into its unique inborn advantages to build the Western Cloud Base, using the cloud computing industry to drive the city's information transmission and computer service software industry.

The Chinese government has attached great importance to the application and exploration of big data, and the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) had promoted big data development into a national strategy.

"Guided by the application of smart city and the development of the cloud computing industry, in the future, Zhongwei will continue to integrate information resources, improve the level of infrastructure digitization, and accelerate the construction of the Western Cloud Base to build Zhongwei into a well-managed, harmonious and industrially synergistic city," said Cui Kun, vice-mayor of Zhongwei.