Development of digital economy accelerating as data cluster grows

More than 600 servers operate 24 hours a day at the center, nicknamed Guizhou's Super Brain. It also cooperates with universities and companies to research astronomy, gene sequencing and calculations that make buildings less vulnerable to earthquake damage.

Wang said the new area will focus on computing power, empowerment and industry, and strive to build three dominant industrial clusters: data centers; intelligent terminals; and data applications.

"We will make every effort to develop the leading industry of 'cloud services' and accelerate the construction of a digital economic development and innovation zone," he said.

The area has invested in improving the network infrastructure to make it faster and more efficient, thus reducing the delay, or latency, in transferring data between different locations.

It has established direct connections with 38 cities including Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen (both in Guangdong province), achieving latency of 3 milliseconds within the province.

The latency to the Chengdu-Chongqing region and surrounding provinces is 6 ms, to Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao area it is 10 ms, to the Yangtze River Delta it is 15 ms, and to the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region it is 20 ms, all of which meet the low latency requirements of most businesses, according to local authorities.