BEIJING - Beijing aims to build a world-class cloud computing center in the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area (BDA), local authorities announced Monday.

The cloud computing industry development plan was issued in September this year, and construction has since kicked off on a cloud computing center in China, said Zhang Boxu, head of the management committee of the BDA.

"Our goal is to attract 50 billion yuan ($7.9 billion) in investment, achieve an annual output value or sales of over 200 billion yuan and employ 50,000 people. By then, the BDA will become a world-leading cloud computing base," Zhang said.

The center, covering an area of 3 square kilometers, will be home to a cloud computing R&D center, an operation and services center, a cloud computing equipment manufacturing base and a cloud computing database, Zhang said.

Zhang made the remarks at a cloud computing congress held at the BDA in the Yizhuang region of southeast Beijing on Monday.

The cloud computing industry will enjoy a series of favorable policies in China which are expected to be issued by the end of this year, Economic Information Daily reported on December 2, citing an authority.

Meanwhile, China will make direct investments of over 2 trillion yuan in the information industry during the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-2015), and cloud computing is among the main investment targets, according to the newspaper.