The pilot allows foreign companies to ‘engage deeply in the Chinese market for services including cloud computing and computing power’. — SCMP
China is set to allow foreign companies to independently run data centres and offer various telecommunications services in the country, with US electric car maker Tesla and British bank HSBC among the first set of applicants.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) initiated a pilot programme in Beijing, Shanghai, Hainan and Shenzhen on Wednesday, allowing foreign companies to wholly own and operate Internet data centres, conduct online data and transaction processing, and offer other telecoms services, according to state news agency Xinhua.
The pilot scheme enables foreign companies to “engage deeply in the Chinese market for services including cloud computing and computing power”, according to the Xinhua report on Wednesday.
Tesla is among the first batch of foreign firms to apply for the pilot, state media China Daily reported, citing Zhang Hongtao, an official of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization.
The first group also includes Singapore-headquartered commodity firm Trafigura, a fintech subsidiary of HSBC, Siemens’ healthcare unit and US game engine developer Unity.
Regulatory approval by the MIIT will be required before foreign firms can carry out the trials, according to the ministry’s plan released in April.
“This expansion of the opening-up policy aims to actively align with international high-standard economic and trade rules, further enrich market supply, stimulate innovation vitality, and share the dividends of China’s digital economic development with the world,” MIIT said.
China’s MIIT unveiled its plan for the pilot scheme in April, which scraps foreign ownership caps for businesses involved in several types of telecoms services, including data centres, content distribution, Internet access, online data and transaction processing as well as information release, delivery and protection.
However, online news publishing, online audiovisual services and Internet cultural services are still off-limits to foreign investors seeking full ownership.
China is further opening up its economy to foreign capital to shore up its economic recovery, and achieve goals that include gross domestic product growth of around 5% in 2024.
Although Tesla is actively seeking more involvement in the China market, its plan to roll out self-driving services in China still faces uncertainties amid mapping and data security issues.
Tesla has Chinese government support for trial runs of some self-driving vehicle features, but the carmaker’s full self-driving system has not been approved for use in the country, state-owned newspaper China Daily reported last week, citing industry sources.
Regulators are still vetting issues around self-driving technologies, data security and compliance, according to the report. – South China Morning Post
