MIIT's Cloud Plan Calls For More Standards

On April 10, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) released Cloud Computing Development Three-year Action Plan (2017 - 2019). The plan is to further lay out the strategies in Opinions of the State Council concerning Stimulation of the Development of Cloud Computing Innovation, Fostering of New Business Models in the Information Industry (GF [2015] No. 5) that came out in 2015, directing China's cloud computing industry towards a high-end, international direction. The plan aims to build a stable foundation for cloud computing in terms of R&D, standards system and industrial organizations by adjusting policies according to industry and market status, to accelerate the industry development through pilot industry applications, to consolidate resources for a healthy cloud ecosystem, to assure security for cloud computing through upgraded network security technologies, and to support local cloud computing enterprises utilize international resources to expand into the international market and participate in international standards and open source organizations.

Targets by 2019 include:

• Scale of China's cloud computing industry will grow to 430 billion RMB.
• Release more than 20 cloud related standards
• Have 2-3 Chinese enterprise emerged as key players in the international arena with substantial market share
• Improve the cybersecurity ability for cloud computing, build cybersecurity inspection and regulation system.

Overall, we can see that this plan is mostly focused on boosting cloud computing industry in China for local enterprises to enter the international arena. The encouragement of foreign cooperation, namely China-Germany, China-Europe, China-Japan-Korea, and etc., is to support local enterprises set up R&D centers, sales network, and market channels abroad, carry out cross-border M&A, and expand globally.