Guizhou Big Data Comprehensive Pilot Area Exhibition Center in Guiyang showcases the province's efforts in big data development. [Photo/gog.cn]

Southwest China's Guizhou province ranks 3rd in the big data development index, according to the report on the development of China's big data industry recently released by the China Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team.

The report analyses big data development in China from a variety of aspects, spanning policy, system, R&D, industry, and integration.

Guizhou, along with Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Zhejiang, and Jiangsu, is leading big data development in China, especially in the number of big data companies, innovation research, and industrial operation.

Guizhou has launched around 20 preferential policies to encourage big data development, covering big data and real economy integration, data asset management, as well as information infrastructure.

However, Guizhou is short in big data talent reserves, industrial scale, and R&D investment, which led to the gap between Guizhou and developed areas like the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, as well as the Yangtze and Pearl River delta areas.

To date, 17 provinces have established administrative departments in big data, 283 universities were approved to set up big data related majors, and 100 big data industrial alliances were established across the country.

The number of researchers in the big data industry has increased from 52,000 in 2016 to 81,000 in 2019, while the investment in R&D reached 55 billion yuan ($7.86 billion) with the emergence of numerous big data platforms, innovation centers, and labs.