GUIYANG - Construction on a Chinese data center for Apple Inc, the U.S. tech giant, is scheduled to begin later this year and the center is expected to open in 2020, sources close to the project has said.

The timetable was provided by the communications administration of southwest China's Guizhou province, where the center will be built.

With an investment of 1 billion U.S. dollars, the data center, which will cover 1,000 mu (67 hectares) in Guian New Area, will offer iCloud services on the Chinese mainland.

Starting Feb. 28, iCloud services on the Chinese mainland will be operated by a local partner, Guizhou-Cloud Big Data Industry Co Ltd.

Before the data center begins operations, the Chinese company will rent servers from China's three major telecom operators to provide iCloud services.

Guizhou is one of the least developed regions in China, but it has become a pioneer in big data in China due to its climate, power supply and network infrastructure.