China is ramping up efforts to develop its domestic cybersecurity industry, vowing to build a cybersecurity industrial park in Beijing that will generate $14.8 billion by 2020, according to an industry blueprint released Sunday.
The cyber park is expected to contribute 330 billion yuan to China's GDP growth and cultivate at least three companies in the industry and earn annual revenues exceeding 10 billion yuan by 2020.
The industrial facility will be a joint effort by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and the Beijing Municipal government.
Experts noted the plan, which comes amid rising global uncertainties, is of national strategic significance as cyberspace remains a major area of confrontation among international powers.
Currently, the U.S. is the global industry leader as North America captured the majority share of the cybersecurity market in 2017, followed by Europe. It is anticipated that Asia Pacific will occupy over 30 percent of the global cybersecurity market by 2025, according to business data platform researchandmarkets.com.
The global cyber security market is projected to exceed $177 Billion by 2025.
With the park, China will advance research on key technologies concerning cybersecurity to meet growing national security demands, and will build a leading research and development base to gather innovation and resources worldwide, according to the plan.
Xiang Ligang, director-general of the Beijing-based Information Consumption Alliance, told the Global Times on Sunday the plan comes just in time as the country rapidly enters the 5G era, which requires higher cybersecurity levels and standards, as risks will increase with new opportunities.
With a higher demand for internet security infrastructure, related industries are expected to receive greater commercial activity, Xiang noted.
According to the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), demand for domestic internet security is growing. In 2017, the cybersecurity industry grew 27.6 percent year-on-year to 43.92 billion yuan and is expected to hit 54.6 billion yuan for 2018.
