China’s least developed province meanwhile - Guizhou - is catching up. Situated in the country's South West, its capital Guiyang reached a real GDP growth rate of 11.7 percent in the third quarter, thanks to a Big Data push and the launch of the world’s largest radio telescope last month. 
 
Landlocked Guizhou has emerged as China's fastest growing province in 2013 - after years of lagging far behind.For years, the local economy relied on coal, tobacco and the production of Maotai, China's most famous liquor.These - and the energy sector - account for 66% of Guizhou’s large-scale industries... until now.

But now a new door is opening for this province - one of China's poorest - as it is pushing for Big Data and cloud computing to boost the local economy.

In May this year, the Chinese government announced it would turn the province into a Big Data hub.Telco operators China Mobile or China Telecom, tech giants Foxconn, Tencent and Baidu, have already set up data centres in Guiyang.The Big Data sector is expected to generate some 700,000 jobs in Guizhou by 2020.

"The government authorized Guiyang to set up its first Big Data pilot zone... We will establish a whole service chain by 2018. By the year 2020, the Big Data sector in Guiyang will top 300 billion yuan." Wang Jun,depuy director of Gui'an New Big Data Dev't Leading Office said.

China Mobile's showroom for data storage and analysis industry looks like a set from the Matrix movie. Wall to wall screens filled with disco-like lights representing data.A gigantic digital map shows a financial wealth management system in real time.

"Using comprehensive analysis, the China Mobile financial wealth management system scans for useful data and ranks them into high, middle or low value categories. In this way, the system helps the government and companies to improve their decision making." Li Ning,business Dev't manager of China Mobile's Big Data Center said. 

Developing healthcare big data and "Internet hospital" service, where patients in remote areas can be treated online by top doctors, is another focus here.They could help solve the imbalance in national medical resources, and difficulties in getting treatment and advice to isolated regions.

The cloud computing market in China was worth about $1.5 billion in 2013, according to the consultancy Bain & Company, and will hit $20 billion by 2020, a compound annual growth rate of 40 percent.

For the last five years Guizhou’s economy has grown by 12-13 percent.But still, it ranks near the bottom of China’s provinces and regions for literacy and income.

"We aim to use Big Data to boost the economy here. On the one hand, it will help upgrade traditional sectors, on the other, it could foster new industries. The sharing economy, precision medicine, and so on, will be key areas we are going to promote." Wang Jun said.

Guizhou’s ambitions are visibly sky-high. In September, the world's largest radio telescope, the Five-hundred meter Aperture Spherical Telescope - or FAST - located in Pingtang County was inaugurated.

Thanks to Guizhou's cheap electricity, strong policy push and stable climate, it has an edge in attracting tech investment--helping it outgrow bigger regions.