According to Cao, the project, upon completion, will play a strategic role in boosting the financial back office and service outsourcing business in Kunshan.

First, it will make full of Huaqiao’s resources advantage to cultivate the core competitiveness of Kunshan in financial back office and service outsourcing business, and absorb international financial institutions and top-grade service outsourcing businesses to settle in Kunshan.

Second, it will speed up the development of financial back office and service outsourcing businesses in Kunshan, help local enterprises swiftly set up high-standard and expansible IT capacities. In the course of guaranteeing reliable and sustaining operation of businesses, it will reduce capital input, shorten construction cycles, reduce business establishment thresholds, and promote development of service outsourcing business in Kunshan.

Third, it will concentrate industrial sectors, absorb enterprises and upstream and downstream enterprises demanding for data center services to settle in the industrial park, generate a complete industrial chain, and subsequently elevate the overall image of Kunshan as a service outsourcing supplier.

Fourth, it will promote constructing HISBP into a state-level ecological model park. The industrial park will apply internationally advanced norms to develop into a zone with low energy consumption, small carbon emission, and prominent ecological effects. It will contribute to building HISBP into a state-level ecological model park.

Established in 2000, GDS was largely invested by Softbank and International Finance Corporation (IFC). As a leading enterprise in China’s disaster recovery service outsourcing sector, GDS mainly supplies data center infrastructure and operation services.

Dedicated to promoting the development of China’s IT outsourcing service, GDS establishes data center infrastructures, with reference to international norms, in North China, East China and South China areas. It has pioneered in offering disaster recovery outsourcing services to bank, securities, funds, government departments and insurance sectors.

It assisted the industrial administration authorities in setting up relevant standards. As a major drafter, GDS participated in establishing the national standard GB/T 20988-2007 Specifications for Information System Disaster Recovery with Information Security Technologies.

GDS initiated to establish the Asia-Pacific Data Center Alliance, dedicated to market promotion, experience exchanges, resources sharing, and standard establishment in Asia-Pacific region.

In recent years, the financial information service outsourcing has seen a rapid development at Huaqiao. To date, Huaqiao has introduced a group of financial service outsourcing enterprises, including Capgemini, Centrin Data Systems and Tangram Customer Interaction Center as well as JiangSu Start Dima Data Processing Co.,Ltd, Sofmit and Bank of China.

By Xie Fang