Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to the 2019 China International Big Data Industry Expo ("Big Data Expo"), which kicked off on Sunday in Guiyang, southwest China's Guizhou Province.

As China's first big data pilot zone, the mountainous province of Guizhou has attracted heavyweight players, including Apple, Qualcomm, Huawei, Tencent, Alibaba and Foxconn, to establish cloud computing and big data centers as well as regional headquarters.

In the letter, Xi said that all countries around the world need to strengthen cooperation, deepen exchanges, and seize the opportunities of the development in digitalization, networking, and artificial intelligence.

Countries should handle the challenges of big data development in law, security, and governance, Xi noted.

President Xi stressed that China attaches great importance to the development in the big data industry, and is willing to share the opportunities of digital economic development with other countries to explore new growth kinetics, development paths, new formats, and new models.

Focusing on "innovative development and digital future," the expo features high-end dialogues, forums, contests, exhibitions, and other events, which spotlight the latest technical innovations and provide an international platform for the presentation of hi-tech companies.

The Big Data Expo has been successfully held for four consecutive years since 2015. In 2017, it was officially upgraded into a national-level exposition.