China sets ambitious goal in cloud computing

BEIJING -- China is aiming to increase the scale of its cloud computing industry by more than 2.5 times by 2019, from 2015 levels, according to a new government plan.

The scale of the cloud computing industry will be expanded to 430 billion yuan (about $62.29 billion) by 2019, up from 150 billion yuan in 2015, according to an action plan for 2017-2019 issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Other targets include making breakthroughs in core technologies, increasing cloud computing in manufacturing and government affairs, and strengthening the global influence of Chinese cloud computing companies.

The ministry expects that two to three Chinese cloud computing companies will lead the global market within three years.

Cloud computing should be a strong support for China's manufacturing and Internet industries and help make other social and economic sectors informationized, the ministry said.

The ministry pledged to enhance cloud computing network security and improve security regulation and relevant laws, as many users from key industries are still hesitating due to safety concerns, reliability and movability.

In the next three years, the government will help boost cloud computing technologies and encourage local governments to work with leading cloud computing companies to build public service platforms.

Support will go to cloud computing-related innovation and entrepreneurship to provide services for small and medium-sized enterprises, the ministry said.

The plan promised better financial services and personnel training, as well as efforts in the branding of current enterprises and products.

Leading cloud computing enterprises should also seek overseas expansion and boost international cooperation in alignment with the Belt and Road Initiative, it said.