The 9th Gansu Qilian Mountains Forum opened in Lanzhou on the morning of August 12. Centered on the theme “Intelligent-driven, Green Integration: Ten Years of Transformative Progress in the Qilian Mountains”, the forum comprehensively showcases Gansu Province’s new thinking in practicing the philosophy of green development and advancing ecological civilization construction, as well as fresh achievements in advancing the Gansu chapter of Chinese-style modernization.

Co-founded by Xinhua News Agency and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) in 2018, the Qilian Mountains Forum has been refined over eight years. It has grown into a high-end authoritative platform for demonstrating progress in ecological civilization construction in Gansu and expanding the value transformation from “lucid waters and lush mountains” to “invaluable assets”.

Computing Power at the Core: Tapping into Gansu’s Competitive Edge in Green Development

Green computing power constitutes a key carrier for deep integration between digital technologies and low-carbon development. Leveraging the Qingyang Data Center Cluster, a national hub node of the National Integrated Computing Network in Gansu, plus abundant local wind and solar resources, how Gansu can better boost its green computing power industry has become a core topic for discussion at the forum.

“Green development serves as a vital driving force for high-quality development. The ten-year transformation of the Qilian Mountains stands as a vivid example of Gansu embarking on a green transition based on its resource endowments. Gansu should fully capitalize on its advantages as a new energy base and build a highland for green industrial development in western China,” said Tu Guangshao, Chairman of the Shanghai New Finance Institute, winning warm applause for his speech.

“We should advance green industrial development by implementing an integrated ‘New Energy Plus’ strategy.” Tu Guangshao argued that Gansu can improve the modern green industrial system by drawing on its strengths as an energy base. He proposed integrating scientific and technological innovation with green development, optimizing the regional layout of green industries, extending green industrial chains, and fostering a full-chain development ecosystem covering equipment manufacturing, system integration and application services.

According to Wang Yukai, Professor at the Party School of the Central Committee of CPC (National Academy of Governance), as one of the eight national hub nodes under the East Data, West Computing initiative, Qingyang boasts inherent strengths in clean energy. He suggested Gansu further consolidate the dual foundations of computing power and computing networks, overcome the shortcomings of low-end industries reliant merely on cabinet leasing, and build a world-class hub for green intelligent computing supply.

“Green computing power represents Gansu’s core strength for differentiated competition. China Telecom Gansu Branch is fully engaged in constructing the national East Data, West Computing hub node in Qingyang, with total computing capacity expected to exceed 100,000 PetaFLOPS by the end of this year,” introduced Yang Lingcai, General Manager of China Telecom Gansu Branch. The Qingyang project adopts liquid cooling energy-saving technologies to fully consume local green power and convert wind and solar resources into high-quality green computing power. Meanwhile, relying on the Xirang Computing Power Scheduling Platform, cross-regional interconnection and elastic allocation of computing power are realized, forming a virtuous cycle featuring local consumption of green electricity and on-demand supply of computing resources.

Intelligent computing services have delivered robust support for ecological management and protection in the Qilian Mountains. It is reported that Gansu prioritizes technology-enabled ecological protection and smart empowerment. It has established an integrated space-air-ground monitoring system combining remote sensing satellites, unmanned aerial vehicles and ground monitoring stations, pushing ecological conservation in frangible alpine zones into a new stage featuring scientific, precise, intelligent and efficient modern governance.

The Qinghai Administration Bureau of Qilian Mountains National Park has built a big data platform based on satellite remote sensing, forming a three-dimensional monitoring network covering 8,000 square kilometers. Supported by technologies including artificial intelligence recognition, researchers have developed an AI algorithm for individual snow leopard identification to accurately pinpoint core habitats with high snow leopard density.

Industry-Finance Coordination: Targeted Empowerment via Green Finance

During the forum, participating guests shared practical experience and jointly explored new pathways for coordinated development between industries and finance.

Pu Ronghui, Deputy General Manager of China Huadian Corporation Gansu Branch, stated that the newly approved 1 GW photovoltaic desert control project in Jiuduntan will serve as a key initiative to build a national-level photovoltaic desert control base in Gansu and realize integrated development of “new energy plus ecological governance”. For the 15th Five-Year Plan period, China Huadian Corporation plans to invest over RMB 50 billion in Gansu and quadruple its installed power generation capacity to reach 16 million kilowatts.

“We position the Longdong Comprehensive Energy and Chemical Base in Gansu as an upgraded version and demonstration pilot for the energy revolution in the new era, pushing forward all-round efforts in green low-carbon transition, smart operation, industrial integration and regional coordination,” said Song Wei, person-in-charge of China National Coal Group (Gansu) Energy Co., Ltd. Upon full completion and operation, the Longdong base will achieve seamless coupling of coal, power, chemicals, new energy, storage and transportation, and is expected to become a benchmark for the green energy transition in western China and across the country.

The landing of real industries underpins integrated green development, while green finance continuously channels capital into projects such as new energy, computing infrastructure and ecological restoration.

“We regard green finance as an important pillar supporting the development of China’s western ecological security barrier. We will keep tilting green credit resources toward Gansu, focusing on supporting major projects including new energy bases in desert, gobi and barren land areas, integrated wind-solar-storage facilities, and photovoltaic desert control,” said Yao Mingde, Member of the Party Committee and Vice President of ICBC, in his speech. ICBC will actively explore mechanisms for realizing the value of ecological products and help Gansu translate ecological advantages into development strengths.

From the perspective of Yang Tao, Research Fellow at the Institute of Finance, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, data application is particularly critical. “The core challenge lies in information asymmetry between financial institutions and enterprises. Financial players cannot leverage effective data to assess the success rate of technological innovation and further translate such assessments into financial credit metrics.” Accordingly, Yang Tao suggested that to boost financial support for new productive forces, data elements should be harnessed to ease information asymmetry and enable targeted financial support for industrial growth.

Source: Shanghai Securities News