China plans major cloud computing centre in Beijing
14 Dec 2011
China plans to build, what local authorities describe as "a world-class cloud computing centre" in the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area (BDA).
According to Zhang Boxu, head of the management committee of the BDA, the cloud computing industry development plan was issued earlier in September this year.
"Our goal is to attract 50 billion yuan ($7.9 billion) in investment, achieve an annual output value or sales of over 200 billion yuan and employ 50,000 people. By then, the BDA will become a world-leading cloud computing base," Zhang said.
The proposed centre will spread over a 3km area and have a cloud computing R&D centre, an operation and services centre, a cloud computing equipment manufacturing base, and a cloud computing database, Zhang said.
Zhang made the remarks at a cloud computing congress held at the BDA in the Yizhuang region of southeast Beijing on Monday.
The cloud computing industry will benefit from a number of encouraging policies, which China expects to unveil by the end of this year, the Economic Information Daily reported on 2 December, citing an authority.
Meanwhile, China intends to invest over 2 trillion yuan in the information industry during the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-2015), and cloud computing is among the main investment targets, according to the newspaper.
