Nearly 200 enterprises from across the world confirmed to attend event

Since its launch in 2015, the China International Big Data Industry Expo has become a world-class platform not only to create opportunities and gather resources for the sector's development in Guizhou province but to contribute Chinese wisdom and solutions to the global industry, said Chen Yan, mayor of Guiyang, the capital of Guizhou.

This year's expo will be held both online and offline from May 26-28 in Guiyang. "Data Creates Value, Innovation Drives the Future" remains the overarching theme of the event. The specific annual theme will be "embrace digital intelligence, deliver new development".

National leaders will give keynote speeches at the opening ceremony, as will international award winners, academicians and entrepreneurs.

Six high-end dialogues will be held during the expo to discuss topics such as data security, digital services, digitalization of industries and big data promoting rural revitalization. It will also organize 10 forums, an exposition, an Expo Release and competitions to share China's actions in leading the new growth in the digital economy.

As of April 22, nearly 200 enterprises from various countries and regions had been confirmed to attend the exposition, including domestic tech giants and global corporate titans like Huawei, Baidu, China Mobile, QIANXIN Technology, Quantum and Matsushita.

The Expo Release is a major part of the event, which will collect leading scientific and technological achievements in big data and related fields from around the world, and release "cutting-edge, disruptive, influential and innovative" technologies, products and business models, Chen said.

"Hosting the 2021 big data expo is an important practice to promote improvement in the digital economy, and also a key mover for the construction of an intelligent society," he added.

As a core part of the National Big Data (Guizhou) Comprehensive Pilot Zone, Guiyang and Guian New Area as a whole has witnessed rapid growth in big data businesses over the last few years.

In 2020, it was home to more than 5,000 big data companies. The added value of its digital economy reached 164.9 billion yuan ($25.27 billion) that year.

Tao Changhai, Guizhou's vice-governor, said the province introduced a batch of large and superlarge data centers during the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20). This has laid a solid foundation for fostering and strengthening its digital economy.

Guizhou was approved to build China's first national big data comprehensive pilot zone in 2016. It now boasts some of the highest number of mega data centers in the world. Its digital economic growth rate has been ranked No 1 in China for five consecutive years, according to the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, a scientific research institute under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

"The province will accelerate the application of artificial intelligence, blockchain, the internet of things and other related new technologies, and pour more resources into the cultivation of the internet economy," Tao said.

By 2025, the added value of Guizhou's digital economy is expected to exceed 1 trillion yuan, accounting for more than 40 percent of the province's GDP.

To boost the integration of digitalization and the real economy is another priority in the province. Tao said more efforts will be made to develop smart factories and promote the use of big data in traditional industries to realize transformation and upgrades.

In the first year of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25), "we will take the big data expo as an opportunity to carry out in-depth implementation of a big data-driven development strategy and create a better environment for the industry in the future", he added.