The 2021 Boao Forum for Asia(BFA) kicked off in Boao, a coastal resort in South China’s Hainan Province on April 20th, with the theme of “A World in Change: Join Hands to Strengthen Global Governance and Advance Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) Cooperation”. It has also been the first international forum comprising mostly offline conferences this year.

Alex Ju, Founder and CEO of Chindata Group (NASDAQ: CD), the only carrier-neutral digital infrastructure platform in the Asia-Pacific region, was invited to attend the annual conference of Boao Forum for Asia (BFA).

Mr. Ju (second from the right) speaks at a session the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2021 on Monday.

At a session titled “Building up New Infrastructure with Digital Silk Road”, he shared his thoughts on how to give full play to the cross-cultural, cross-regional and cross-industrial advantages as an international company and how to advance its strategic layout in the regions influenced by RCEP pact. He believed that this strategy will not only empower the leading tech companies with evolving digital infrastructure but also make its contribution for people in this region to equally enjoy the benefits of digital transformation.

Mr.Ju said that the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) can accelerate the Belt and Road initiative to achieve a five-way progress in policy communication, infrastructure connectivity, trade facilitation, capital flow, and people-to-people exchanges. In the digital age, as digitization levels of the five-way progress are getting higher and higher, there are rising requirements for the interconnection of digital infrastructure. To better support the rapid development of digital economy, the digital infrastructure planning and construction needs to implement as quickly as it could as the preparing period usually takes one or two years.

By the end of the fourth quarter of 2020, Chindata Group had a total of 489 IT MW capacity in service and under construction, focusing in China, Malaysia, India and other Asia-Pacific countries. Chindata Group received over 40 IT MW of indication of interest (IOI) orders for its Southeast Asia facilities from anchor tenants in the fourth quarter of 2020. The leading cloud service providers expanded their cooperation with Chindata Group to include contracts for an additional 16.35 IT MW in Malaysia and an additional 10 IT MW in India.

Facing the impact of coronavirus in 2020, Chindata Group was the only digital infrastructure operator in the world that could delivers services on schedule to its top global cloud companies, strongly supporting their business development in the countries RCEP includes and helping them promote the local digital economy too. “There is no shortcut to building the Digital Silk Road. Only by deeply participating in this industry and upholding the role of a supporter can we truly deliver the contribution to the sustainable development of the local country's digital economy industry.” Mr. Ju said.

On the sidelines of the Boao Forum for Asia, Mr. Ju also met with Mr. Djauhari Oratmangun, Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia to the People’s Republic and envoys and counselors of many other member countries related to RCEP. They exchanged in-depth views on topics such as Chindata Group's business plan in RCEP-related countries and the role of RCEP in promoting digital infrastructure.