Xinjiang said on Oct 11 that governments at all levels in the region will stop building computer labs and data centers.

The cloud computing industry was named as a strategic emerging industry by Xinjiang in 2011. Construction of many cloud computing bases was started including a software park in Urumqi and two cloud computing industrial parks in Karamay and Changji.

Several data centers providing mature cloud application services, such as China Mobile (Xinjiang) Cloud Computing, were put into operation.

By the end of 2015, 60 percent of office buildings in the area and more than 1.76 million households had been provided with fiber service. The Economic & Information Commission of Xinjiang Autonomous Region uploaded its data to the cloud platform in June of 2016. The Public Security Department of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region also took that step and started to use the e-government cloud.

Many local companies have accelerated cloud computing application through persistent research and development.

"Local governments in Xinjiang can buy cloud services instead of building computer rooms and data centers,"said Su Guoping, deputy director of the Economic & Information Commission of Xinjiang Autonomous Region.

Every five years, Xinjiang's companies have to spend about two million yuan ($297,000) on construction and maintenance of computer rooms. The shift to doing work through cloud platforms will trim the cost to under 200,000 yuan ($30,000).

By Qiu Guizhen and Edited by Peter Nordlinger