Chengdu, the capital city of southwest China's Sichuan Province, is now working on a post-quake data backup center. According to a report released today by China Business News, the center will be the biggest one in Asia.

City officials also formally announced the Chengdu Declaration on International Disaster Restoration yesterday. With the help of big software companies in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hangzhou, Chengdu will work to set up China's first inter-city disaster preparation union, the report said.

The 7th China International Fair for Software Cooperation opened yesterday in Chengdu. Several cooperation programs that were signed at the fair include a Chengdu high-performance data-processing center, an Amazon call center and several software out-resourcing projects. Other important achievements include the Framework Agreement for China-Europe Software Cooperation and the Cooperation Agreement for Chinese and Japanese Software Out-resourcing Enterprises.

3G was an important topic at the fair. Hou Ziqiang, telecom expert and former secretary-general of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), said that the application of 3G technology is important to people's daily lives, industries, commercial and service fields.

Investment in a 3G network within the next three years will reach 400 billion yuan and 3G users will reach 150 million three years after that, according to Chen Jiachun, deputy chief of the Telecom Administration Bureau under the Ministry of Information Industry (MII).

Since telecommunication is a pillar industry in the national economy, investment in a 3G network will bring investment and consumption of more than 1 trillion yuan in production and sale of 3G terminals and 3G applications.

Chengdu is now a major city leading in 3G communication technology research and equipment development. According to Li Shaoqian, a professor at the University of Electronic Science and Technology in Chengdu, the city has a complete industry chain producing fibers, wires, modules and access equipments, as well as a large number of 3G related innovative businesses regarding communication technology development and communication value-added services.

(China.org.cn by Zhang Yunxing, April 17, 2009)