Yichang’s digital economy records strong growth

By Zhang Chuxin, Yichang International Communication Studio

Thanks to Yichang’s geographical advantages and supportive environmental policies, the city’s digital economy has posted strong growth.

In the first half of this year, companies across key digital industries in Yichang achieved total operating revenues of more than 17 billion yuan (US$2.37 billion), up 12.7 percent year-on-year.

Yichang has drafted a plan to foster its digital growth engines in “one area and three parks,” namely the Three Gorges Data Center Concentration Area, the Three Gorges Big Data Industrial Park, Dianjun Electronic Information Industrial Park and Xiling Artificial Intelligence Industrial Park. 

 

The Three Gorges Big Data Industrial Park is just 3.6 kilometers away from the Three Gorges Dam. Thanks to its location advantage, the park uses clean hydro-power energy to run green and low-carbon data centers.
 

At the heart of the park is the Three Gorges Dongyuemiao Data Center, whose first phase began operations in September 2022. Currently, the power usage effectiveness ratio of the center is 1.3, which is lower than the 1.5 average across China. This ratio measures the efficiency of energy use in a computer data center; specifically, how much energy is used by the computing equipment. The center plans to utilize high-efficiency refrigeration solutions to save 2.79 million tonnes of carbon emissions across its total life cycle. In the second and third phases of the data center, the goal is to further cut this ratio to below 1.1.

Dianjun Electronic Information Industrial Park focuses on the development of digital industries, introduces high-tech enterprises and innovation platforms, and develops artificial intelligence and IoT (Internet of Things) projects.

At present, Dianjun park has attracted many Chinese companies in the industrial internet, big data and artificial intelligence industries, such as Sugon, SmartCore, SENSORO, Exsun, ZhiWangYiLian, and Enflame. The “digital twin platform” of Dianjun District has implemented more than 10 applications developed by SENSORO in scenarios of illegal fishing banning, smart fire prevention, drowning prevention and extreme weather warnings.
 

 Dianjun Electronic Information Industrial Park
 

Companies in Xiling Artificial Intelligence Industrial Park are leveraging their artificial intelligence expertise to help other industries upgrade themselves. In the factory of Yichang Angel Company, six production lines have been completely equipped with intelligent automatic control systems. When the carrying box of a product passes through a special device, it is sprayed with a unique QR code, through which the whole process of its raw material feeding, production, warehousing, transport and sales can be tracked.