China's Xiaoshan district set to focus on growing its digital economy
China’s Xiaoshan district has announced plans to develop a digital industry and encourage digital transformation initiatives amongst local industries
In a 22 November press release, the announcements from a digital economic development conference held on 20 November were outlined.
Xiaoshan’s key target took centre stage, with ambitions of doubling the scale and added value of the district’s digital economy over the next four years. The plans, in real terms, are projected to see the information economy reach 120bn yuan by 2022 while the digital economy is set to reach 72bn yuan by the same time.
The press release said: “Xiaoshan District will vigorously build digital economic development platforms as well as an optimal ecological zone of digital economy and foster the organic integration of digital economy and production, city and people, striving to be the pioneer and leader in the construction of the first digital economic city nationwide, said Tong Guili, member of the standing committee of the CPC Hangzhou Municipal Committee and secretary of the CPC Xiaoshan District Committee.”
NetEase, SenseTime, and iFLYTEK are counted amongst Xiaoshan’s rising digital powerhouses as they each continue their rapid growth. NetEase Cloud Music, NetEase’s music streaming unit, recently announced that it raised US$600mn in its latest funding round in preparation for taking on Tencent Music in earnest.
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WeDoctor and SHINING 3D were also highlighted in the press release as digital market leaders that are continuing to experience significant growth.
The district is also home to rapidly growing tech industry clusters, as an increasing number of firms take on artificial intelligent, smart medical technology, industrial big data, and smart manufacturing.
Xiaoshan will also be home to the China V Valley project which aims to promote, research, and develop computer and machine vision technology.