GUIYANG -- Southwest China's Guizhou province has promoted digital upgrades in more than 10,000 enterprises in its effort to build a big-data hub, said a local official Thursday.

The number of local companies that embrace digitalization has risen to 10,574 since 2018 when the corporate digitalization drive began, said Lou Song, vice-head of Guizhou's big-data development administration.

Lou said Guizhou will continue to settle computing resources channeled from China's eastern regions and build a computing base for the nation. It will use digitalization to empower businesses and other areas, from government operations to urban management.

Endowed with vast karst landscapes, Guizhou has, in recent years, tapped into its many caves, which offer a secure environment for data storage, to develop a digital economy and has emerged as the country's first national big-data comprehensive pilot zone.