Photo taken on Sept 16, 2015 shows paddy fields on the Yueliang Mountain in southwest China's Guizhou province. [Photo/Xinhua]

The provincial regulation comes as Guizhou is aggressively tapping into the big data industry to boost economic growth. Currently, it is home to more than 1,200 big data companies. China's big three telecom operators are spending 15 billion yuan ($2.4 billion) for constructing three Internet data centers in Guizhou, which are expected to house 2 million servers.

Li Yao, director of the finance office in the Guizhou provincial government, said many firms have developed models for big data applications but they just do not have enough data to put them into use.

"The regulation urges governments to open more public data to enterprises, which will help solve the problem given the vast volumes of information governments have collected. But the difficulty lies in how to implement such rules. Relevant parties need to come up with detailed methods."

Tian Jinghai, a big data expert at the Emerging Industrial Centers of China Investment Association, agreed. "I am glad to see that the regulation says the government will set up a grading system for public data, detailing what types of information can be shared with enterprises. This is the prerequisite for large-scale application of big data."