China prepares to pilot opening-up of internet data centers: minister

China is preparing to pilot opening-up of internet data centers, an official from Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said on Friday, against the backdrop as China is boosting a high-level reform and opening-up.

Jin Zhuanglong, minister of MIIT made the remarks at the Ministers' Corridor at second session of the 14th National People's Congress (NPC), as China kicked off the two sessions this week. 

The remarks also came after the Government Work Report delivered by Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Tuesday, when Li said that China will further shorten the negative list for foreign investment. All market access restrictions on foreign investment in manufacturing will be abolished, and market access restrictions in services sectors, such as telecommunications and healthcare, will be reduced.

Promoting new industrialization needs to deepen reform and expand opening-up. China has announced to completely lift restrictions on foreign investment in the manufacturing sector, while the MIIT is preparing to pilot the opening of value-added telecommunications services such as internet data centers, Jin said. 

He said MIIT is promoting the deep integration of informatization and industrialization, including the advanced construction of 5G computing power and other information facilities, and also creating a number of Chinese-made brands with international influence.

Creating national-level manufacturing innovation center is also mentioned in his remarks, as Jin said China is vowing to quickly form new quality productive forces and expand advanced manufacturing clusters.

The opening of internet data centers has a close connection with the big data, and it will be a big help to promote China's artificial intelligence (AI) industry in technology competition, Liu Dingding, a Beijing-based tech analyst, told the Global Times on Friday.

The internet data center refers to a device network center that performs data storage, processing and interaction in a specific physical space. In China, the data center industry is dominated by basic telecom operators and third-party internet data center operators, among which third-party internet data center service providers have become the main participants.

A report released by Cyberspace Administration of China showed that by the end of 2022, data centers in use nationwide now have more than 6.5 million standard racks, with the total computing power ranking second in the world.

Chinese experts also projected that China's high-quality development in 2024 and medium to long term will be driven by new quality productive forces such as AI, digital economy and other innovation industries and Chinese economy will remain a major destination for foreign investment and a major engine driving global growth.

In October 2023, China announced that it will remove all restrictions on foreign investment access in the manufacturing sector. The annual central economic work conference also emphasized the importance of improving market access for the telecommunications and medical industries.

Chinese experts said that lifting restrictions on foreign investment in the manufacturing sector will help attract more foreign investment to China's manufacturing industry, and also promote China's manufacturing industry for a higher level of modernization.