A staff member works at the State Key Laboratory of Public Big Data at Guizhou University in Guiyang, southwest China's Guizhou Province, May 27, 2022. (Xinhua/Ou Dongqu)

GUIYANG, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- Guizhou Province, southwest China's main big data hub, announced Monday that it will invest 20 billion yuan (about 2.9 billion U.S. dollars) in big data related projects in 2023.

This year, Guizhou Province plans to introduce more than 200 digital economy projects with strong growth, according to a provincial big data conference held on Monday.

The province will speed up the layout of data centers, computing networks, 5G and other next-generation digital infrastructure, said Jing Yaping, director of the provincial big data development authority, at the conference.

According to the plan, by 2025, there will be 800,000 data center racks and 4 million servers in Guizhou, with more than 180,000 5G base stations built in the province.

As the country's first national big data comprehensive pilot zone, Guizhou Province has been promoting the big data industry as a mainstay of its high-quality social and economic development.

In 2023, Guizhou's GDP is expected to grow by around 6 percent to reach 2.2 trillion yuan, with the digital economy accounting for around 40 percent of its GDP.