The global software leader, Hewlett-Packard, is planning on putting 22 billion yuan ($3.6 billion) into a Qingdao-HP Software Big Data Global Application Research and Industry Foundation, in Shandong province, its first such operation in China which is in accordance with an agreement reached in Jinan, the capital of Shandong, on October 30.

It calls for HP China to oversee the construction of a big data foundation located in Qingdao’s West Coast New Area, to provide big data services to Chinese users and promote smart industry development to help Shandong change from a manufacturing powerhouse to an R&D leader in IT.

As China’s economy grows, so does the demand for big data in many industries, and applications and technologies in this new field have immense potential. So, the HP - Qingdao deal will cover technology, talent, and capital, and HP helping Qingdao in rapid development of information solutions, software outsourcing, technological support, and talent.

Qingdao’s West Coast New Area hopes to take advantage of the HP program to attract more enterprises and IT professionals and to form high-tech industrial clusters to speed IT industrial development.