More than 30 Russian exhibitors from over 10 enterprises participated at the 2019 Big Data Expo, which was held from May 26 to 29 in Guiyang, capital of Southwest Guizhou province.
"It is amazing for an inland city in China to hold such an international big data expo," said Pavel Podkorytov, founder and CEO of Napoleon IT, who was making his first trip to the expo.
Podkorytov brought a big data solution to the expo, an artificial intelligence face recognition system that can be applied in supermarkets to track and analyze sales performance and customers' in-store traffic flow. Through this system, supermarkets can find the right place to source their products.
"However, what's most exciting about this event is meeting a lot of peers and learning about their cutting-edge technologies," he said.
Li Haibo, director of the international cooperation promotion center in Guiyang National High-tech Industrial Development Zone, noted that Guizhou is known as China's first big data pilot zone and that Guiyang has developed into China's "digital valley".
Guiyang National High-tech Industrial Development Zone, as a big data industry hub, has established eight innovation centers abroad.
One of the centers is in Moscow. Built in 2017, the center has employed local staff to work on international communication, business incubation, talents introduction, and investment attraction.
The innovation center is a platform to promote cooperation in technology and business between Russia and China. "Through the platform, Guiyang Engineering Cooperation Limited of China Power took the construction of a government housing project in Moscow," Li said. "In addition, there are a bunch of cutting-edge technology and talents in Russia. The innovation center can not only offer support, including funds and fostering incubation, but can also introduce their business in Guiyang National High-tech Industrial Development Zone."
To date, the high-tech industrial development zone has signed cooperation agreements with more than 10 Russian experts in various fields.
"Petrichenko Vladimir, an academician from The Russian Academy of Natural Science, is one of the most impressive experts. He comes to Guizhou and instructs on agriculture antifreeze technology regularly, even though he is in his 70s. He told me that Guiyang has great potential to develop more industries and technology applications," Li said.
Li Hanyi contributed to this story