GUIYANG -- Southwest China's Guizhou province has started the construction of 49 "new infrastructure" projects with a total investment of 10.4 billion yuan ($1.47 billion) this month, according to the provincial development and reform commission.

Among the major projects focusing on 5G telecom networks and big data centers, the 43,000-square-meter data center of China Mobile in Guizhou, with a total investment of 800 million yuan, is expected to serve as the telecom giant's backbone node in southwest China after completion.

Guizhou, the country's first comprehensive big data pilot area, has continued to promote big data development in recent years. As a batch of projects including Huawei and Tencent data centers have been built and put into operation, the number of major data centers in the province has increased to 17.

"New infrastructure" refers to digital facilities such as 5G base stations, vehicle charging stations, big data centers, artificial intelligence and industrial internet.