China woos Indian firms to invest in its big data zone

Bengaluru, June 27 (SURYAA) A Chinese delegation on Tuesday beckoned Indian IT firms to invest in its national big data pilot zone in Guizhou province.

"As a centrepiece of China's Internet of Things (IoT) and big data initiatives, the pilot zone is a hot spot for investment by Indian IT firms," Guizhou Governor Sun Zhigang told reporters at an interactive session hosted by the Indian IT industry's apex body Nasscom.

A hub for green data centres, Guizhou, in the southwest region, ranked top in GDP growth among China's provinces for six consecutive years.

"Guizhou and Bengaluru have similar high-tech capabilities with the province being a cluster for big data industrial development and the Indian IT city is a leading software development hub," said Sun.

Housing core data centres belonging to Huawei, Tencent, Foxconn and Alibaba and China Mobile, the province is expected to be home to three million servers by 2025.

The discussions between the visiting delegation and members of the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) centred on data as a currency and the prospects for big data development the region presents between Indian IT firms and the Province's state-run companies.

"The production and convergence of data in the province overlays big data enterprises and powers cloud chain services, information networks, long-distance freight, public transport, cab aggregation and customisation and e-medicine," said Guizhou Big Data Bureau Director Ma Ningyu.

The dialogue between the visiting delegation and Indian IT firms was held as part of an agreement between the province and Nasscom in February on the big data initiative and cooperation in the IT sector between the two neighbouring countries.

"India-China cooperation has always been at the forefront of our agenda, as both countries have a strong value addition to offer each other in big data expertise. This dialogue is significant for the emerging ecosystems of IoT and big data of both countries," said Nasscom global trade development Director Gagan Sabharwal.

As the industry lobby, Nasscom has been working on global communication and cooperation in big data and high-tech fields, with an emphasis on Guizhou, an emerging area of big data development.