Authorities in the mountaineous province of Guizhou, where tech firm Apple stores its Chinese user data, pledged Thursday to continue to protect user data and privacy "as always", and open up public data to foreign enterprises.

The province rolled out the nation's first local law on big data administration in 2016, and unveiled other regulations in an attempt to draw a line over data collection, sharing and security, said the province's publicity head Lu Yongzheng at a news conference in Beijing.

He said on the premise of data and privacy security, the provincial authorities will also open up public data in an effort to promote the development of the data industry.

Lu invited domestic and foreign enterprises to "sail the blue sea of data", share the data dividend and together build a community of a shared future for humanity.

The province has drawn investments from 26 world's top 500 enterprises headquartered overseas, he added.