China's geomatics industry output reaches almost ¥600 billion in 2018

GUANGZHOU, July 26 (Xinhua News Agency) – This was the news from the 2019 China Geomatics Industry Conference held in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai, 24-26 July.

The country's geoinformation industry has largely closed in on the industry's global leaders with a continuously expanding industrial scale, improving industrial structure and enhancing innovation ability, said Cheng Liwei, chief engineer of the Ministry of Natural Resources.

Data from the conference showed that China's data resources, which are becoming new drivers of economic growth and social development, have posted a robust growth in recent years.

In 2018, there were 7.6 zettabytes of data created in China and it is expected to be 48.6 zettabytes by 2025, with its global share growing from 23.4 percent to 27.8 percent by then.

China issued its first development plan for the geographic information industry in 2014, vowing to establish a system with independent intellectual property rights by 2020.