As an interview unfolds, we explore the dynamic evolution of the digital economy in Qiyang City, Gansu Province, a revolutionary region renowned for its historical significance with titles like “The Origin of Agriculture,” “The Hometown of Traditional Chinese Medicine,” “New Energy City,” “Red Sacred Land,” and “Data Counting Hub.” We delve into the strategic opportunities and policy resources that could propel this city towards a transformative leap in its digital economy industry ecosystem.
Recently, the A1 Data Center of the China Energy Construction Qiyang Big Data Center Industrial Park has commenced operations. Additionally, the Qiyang Cloud Computing Big Data Center under China Telecom’s “Eastern Data, Western Computing” initiative has completely sold out its 1,664 racks. Furthermore, the National Data Center Cluster (Gansu·Qiyang) has initiated eight projects in the “Eastern Data, Western Computing” industrial park, with an investment of 1.23 billion yuan. These milestones symbolize the rapid advancement of Qiyang’s digital economy.
In a recent interview, an official from Qiyang City disclosed that since the establishment of the national hub for the “Eastern Data, Western Computing” initiative, the city has employed robust strategies, including creating industrial parks, launching projects, expanding computing power, fostering clusters, and promoting integration. As of now, Qiyang has engaged with 3,170 digital economy enterprises, signed agreements with 800 companies, and established 239 subsidiaries—adding 1,515 new firms, 522 contracts, and 138 subsidiaries just this year.
With regards to policies, the Gansu provincial government’s support framework, which includes 40 measures for hub construction, has been enhanced by Qiyang’s own initiatives aimed at ensuring the resources needed for digital economic development. Comprehensive support policies and resource guarantees have been implemented to stimulate and facilitate the establishment of this national hub.
Wang Yao, the Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee at the Qiyang Municipal Finance Bureau, shared insights on the evolving collaborative environment. “We’ve broadened our engagement with digital enterprises through multiple channels. The initiative has grown from just a few individuals to whole departments, involving all employees. Now, it feels like ‘every moment is a negotiation, and everyone is a recruiter,'” he noted. The investment climate for digital economic projects in Qiyang is vibrant, with the Finance Bureau alone signing strategic cooperation agreements with 22 enterprises, registering 7 subsidiaries, and initiating 5 new projects.
In the past two years, Qiyang’s digital economy output has witnessed significant growth. A number of thriving digital economy firms, including Suihong Computing, Kingsoft Cloud, and Han Monkey Technology, have commenced operations, with 27 companies currently generating a total revenue of 3.037 billion yuan.
As regions across the nation compete for a slice of the rapidly growing artificial intelligence sector, Qiyang, as one of the eight key hubs and ten data center clusters in this initiative, is focused on attracting major investors. Local strategies aim to boost the scale of intelligent computing resources, encouraging businesses to invest in computational infrastructure, driving demand for these services, and ensuring the successful realization of a target of 50,000 petaflops of computing power by the end of the year. This includes the launch of the “Qiyang Eastern Data, Western Computing” computing voucher scheme, which allocates up to 100 million yuan annually, specifically supporting advancements in AI model training and applications in voice recognition, image recognition, and autonomous driving sectors.
The Qiyang computing center is operating at high efficiency, with 47 digital economy projects launched this year, totaling investments of 60.249 billion yuan, and 7.991 billion yuan already invested. More than 200,000 standard racks are currently under construction.
As part of enhancing its computing ecosystem, Qiyang is making strides towards domestically produced technologies. In June, the first domestically produced 10,000-card computing cluster was launched, and Kingsoft Cloud’s northwest cloud node is undergoing expansion, alongside rapid progress on a capital city cluster. Plans are in motion for the establishment of a 70,000-card domestic acceleration cluster to support the development of AI models. So far, Qiyang has successfully set up and put into operation the equivalent of 20,000 standard racks, increasing its computing capacity from 5,000 petaflops at the end of last year to 21,000 petaflops today.
