A Province located in Southwest China has rolled out a range of preferential policies for the development of big data development and application recently, according to China News.

The Guizhou Government said the Plan Outline for the policies has been created to promote the development of the big data industry in Guizhou by offering benefits including taxation, finance and human resources.

The outline stipulates that big data enterprises that meet the requirements for enjoying the preferential tax policy will be exempt from corporate income tax for the first two years, and will only need to pay 50% of the corporate income tax in the following three.

Guizhou will also set up a special fund for dig data developments, pooling resources at both the provincial and municipal level.

In the next three years - starting from 2014 - the governments of Guizhou Province, Guiyang City and Gui’an New District will also work together to allocate no less than 100m CNY a year for developing the big data industry.

Guizhou will also encourage tertiary institutions to offer postgraduate courses on big data.

The province provides financial incentives including preferential income tax and housing allowances for attracting talent and has committed to establishing a long-term skilled technical personnel exchange with well-known big data experts both home and abroad, as well as setting up postdoctoral and academic working stations.

Big data projects have followed
These new incentives have already started to encourage wider big data investment. Last month, the provinces of Guizhou and Beijing said they will jointly establish the West China Big Data Industrial Base. More than 80bn Yuan has been raised for this project.

And recently a new financial data management center opened in Liupanshui, the fourth largest city in Guizhou Province. It is estimated to have cost 10CNY, money provided by the Meida Group, a company that mainly deals with real estate development in the Zhejiang Province.

Foxconn Technology Group has also signed a cooperation agreement with the Bin’an New District of Guizhou for building a 45,000 sq m data center and a 2,500 sq m R&D center. Foxconn also plans to establish a big data analysis company with Guizhou.

Telco players are also showing interest. China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom are building cloud computing facilities in Guiyang, the capital of Guizhou, with accumulated investment of more than 15 bn CNY.

The turnover of data analytics-related businesses in Guiyang is projected to hit 54 bn CNY by 2016, according to a local government estimate. The amount represents about 30% of the total output of the city's information technology industry.

About 200 big data companies will be located in the city because of lower taxes and cheaper electricity.

Why Guizhou?
Guizhou offers ideal climate for operating data centers. Its Gui’an New District, for example, has neither extreme hot summers nor extreme cold winters, with an annual average temperature kept at around 15.1Ôäâ.

The province is also an important energy base in China. With abundant supply of coal and water resources, it is one of the most important provinces for supporting China’s West-East Electricity Transfer Project. And in recent years, new energy sources including wind power, photovoltaic and biomass power have been added to its mix. This alongside its favorable data center policies seems to be attracting a lot of investment for the province, and pushing forward its big data ideals.