Big server maker Inspur to tap into Belt and Road by constructing cloud computing centers overseas

China's biggest server maker, Inspur Group Co Ltd, aims to increase the contribution of its overseas revenue stream to 40 percent of its total sales by 2020 as it scrambles to tap into opportunities brought by the Belt and Road Initiative.

Sun Pishu, chairman and CEO of Inspur, says the company will step up efforts to build cloud computing centers overseas to help promote regional connectivity in Eurasia. It currently generates 20 percent of its revenue from abroad.

"IT facilities have become the same important infrastructure as water, electricity and transportation," Sun says.

"The Belt and Road Initiative is not only about connecting ports, railways and highways, but also to free up the flow of information and data and to enhance digital links among the economies," Sun adds.

The Shandong-based company's IT products are available in 108 countries and regions. It has built more than 30 cloud computing centers in China and helps more than 110 local government organizations to boost their governance via cloud products.

"China is the most sophisticated IT market and the largest data producer in the world," Sun says. "Our four decades of experience in building information infrastructure are of great value to other developing economies."

Last year, the China Development Bank promised Inspur 20 billion yuan ($2.9 billion; 2.63 billion euros; ￡2.24 billion) in financing from 2016 to 2020, which among other purposes would be used to accelerate the latter's overseas expansion.

Inspur has already built an education cloud platform for the Thai government to boost local students' learning efficiency. Its prowess in supercomputers also helped scientists from Saudi Arabia map the genome of the date palm, whose fruit is a staple food in the region. It has also established cooperation with about 20 countries on tax informatization.

"When venturing into markets related to the Belt and Road, Inspur not only exports products and services, but shares its experience in leveraging information infrastructure with other developing economies," Sun says.

To date, the Chinese IT conglomerate has held more than 500 overseas training programs on big data, cloud computing and tax informatization systems, which it says helped countries like Egypt, Ethiopia, South Africa and Vietnam train more than 10,000 technicians and officials.

In March, Inspur signed a strategic cooperation agreement with an affiliated organization of the Ministry of Commerce to expand similar initiatives and provide more training opportunities for economies related to the Belt and Road Initiative.

Xiang Ligang, a telecom expert and CEO of telecom industry website cctime.com, says that as Chinese heavyweights narrow the technology gap with Western counterparts, more companies will expand their overseas footprint in the future.

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(China Daily European Weekly 05/19/2017 page29)