Fujian capitalizes on digital future with industrial park

East China's Fujian province has made strides developing a digital economy, with efforts to introduce supportive policies, establish industrial parks and hold industry summits.

"Fujian became one of six national digital economy innovation development pilot areas in China in October. The province will take this as an opportunity to further explore and innovate on the digital economy, striving to forge itself into a benchmark of China's digital economy," said Chen Ronghui, director at the digital division of the Fujian Development and Reform Commission.

To accelerate the development of its big data industry, Fujian established the Digital Fujian (Changle) Industrial Park in Binhai New City in the provincial capital, Fuzhou.

Over five years, the industrial park has attracted more than 130 industry-leading companies to settle. They include genomics company Berry Genomics, internet security service provider Qihoo 360, Microsoft and Tencent.

"We visited up to 40 regions in China and finally settled in the Digital Fujian (Changle) Industrial Park because of its favorable investment environment and supportive policies," said an executive of Berry Genomics.

According to the local government, Fujian has introduced a series of policies to aid the development of industries including big data, internet of things, satellite applications, sharing economy and 5G.

In addition, the province is taking advantage of the Digital China Summit to attract investments in big data and its applications, aiming to foster high-quality development.

The Digital China Summit was held in Fuzhou in April 2018 and May this year.

Fujian has some 40 companies that can supply industry-leading products and technologies used in the fields of mobile internet, gaming, big data, internet of things, virtual reality and augmented reality.

Fujian's trade volume of digital economy reached 1.42 trillion yuan ($201.85 billion) in 2018, ranking seventh in China and representing a year-on-year growth of 22.4 percent.

The digital economy accounts for 39.8 percent of Fujian province's GDP. It is an important driver of Fujian's high-quality development, according to the provincial government.

Among the industry leaders is the Newland Communications Science and Technology, which is a builder and a participant in the construction of a "digital Fujian".

Established in 1994, Newland has developed into a high-tech company engaging in internet of things, big data and information technology.

Since 2010, it has been a major QR code decoding chip manufacturer in China. In recent years it has become a world-leading comprehensive financial technologies provider.