China has approved a project to build eight national integrated computing hubs with 10 data center clusters across the country, in a bid to improve computing capacity and better empower the country's digital development, according to the country's top economic planner.

The project, jointly approved by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the Cyberspace Administration of China, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and the National Energy Administration, marks the completion of the overall layout for the national integrated big-data center system.

The eight national computing hubs will be built in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the eastern Yangtze River Delta region, the southern Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the southwestern Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, southwest China's Guizhou Province, northwest China's Gansu Province and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, according to the NDRC.

As the backbone to China's computing network, the eight hubs will develop data-center clusters, carry out collaborative construction between data centers, cloud computing and big data, and bridge the gap between eastern and western regions in computing resources.

Noting that most of China's data centers are distributed in eastern regions at present, Sun Wei, an NDRC official, said in a recent interview with Xinhua that shortages of land and energy resources in these regions pose a threat to the sustained development of the data centers.

In contrast, China's western regions are rich in resources, especially renewable energy, and have the potential to nurture the development of data centers and meet the needs of data computing in the eastern regions, Sun said.

"The implementation of the project is conducive to promoting green development and utilizing green energy in the western regions, and continuously optimizing the energy efficiency of data centers," Sun said.

In the next stage, China will focus on improving the influence of the eight national computing hubs to drive the integrated and coordinated development of data computing across the country.

Along with big-data sector growth, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has unveiled a plan for the industry during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025). 

It forecasts that China's big-data industry will exceed 3 trillion yuan ($474 billion) by the end of 2025, with a compound annual growth rate of around 25 percent.

(With input from Xinhua)