Xinjiang’s industrial parks are accelerating the integration of digital and real-world economies, actively embracing the "AI+" trend, and leveraging new infrastructure to build a solid foundation for high-quality development.
Digital parks are rapidly advancing. Shortly after the Spring Festival holiday, the Tacheng (Tuoli) Green Carbon Intelligent Computing Industrial Park was already bustling with activity. Computing power investment enterprises are busy with planning, equipment installation, and heterogeneous networking. "The park has attracted 22 computing power enterprises, with 12,500 P of computing capacity activated and a total registered scale of 75,000 P. It is expected that 30,000 P will be operational this year," said Ma Zhanhai, Party Secretary and Deputy Director of the Tuoli County Bureau of Commerce and Industry. Leveraging abundant green electricity resources, an average annual temperature of 6–7°C, and low-cost land, Tuoli County has become an attractive destination for computing power projects. In just two years, a computing power hub has emerged, drawing investments from state-owned enterprises and industry leaders.
Simultaneously, Yiwu County, located in the northeastern part of the Tianshan Mountains, is racing to build a robust computing power foundation for "AI+." Taking advantage of the national "East Data, West Computing" project and the "Digital Silk Road," Hami City has systematically planned a 1,400-acre computing power innovation demonstration zone in Yiwu. This zone integrates intelligent computing industrial clusters, residential support areas, digital incubation zones, and industrial development services. The Tianshan Zhigu Advanced Computing Cluster, a leading single computing center spanning 35,000 square meters, has been completed, with a planned capacity exceeding 60,000 P. As of January 2026, 17 computing power enterprises had settled in the zone, with 14,500 P of high-performance intelligent computing power being networked and 7,500 P already in use. If coal and coal chemical industries were once Yiwu’s hallmark, intelligent computing has now become its new identity.
The Karamay Cloud Computing Industrial Park and the Xinjiang Software Park, established in 2012, are among the earliest parks in Xinjiang to focus on computing power and the digital economy. The Karamay park has built the region’s first computing power cluster exceeding 10,000 P, with capacity surpassing 20,000 P by the end of 2025, ranking first in Xinjiang and among the top in Northwest China. The Xinjiang Software Park, the only autonomous region-level software and IT industrial park, has developed six major ecosystems—software information, cloud computing, big data, IoT, and AI—attracting 320 enterprises. Similarly, in southern Xinjiang, the China Pishan Digital Economy Industrial Park and the Shule Qilu Data Service Industrial Park have also emerged in recent years.
The integration of digital and real-world economies is deepening. In early February, while Changji City was covered in snow, the smart agriculture technology hall in the Changji National Agricultural High-tech Industrial Demonstration Zone was vibrant with spring-like conditions. Leafy vegetables such as spinach, lettuce, and Chinese lettuce thrived in nutrient solutions using vertical farming techniques. "Sensors in the hall collect real-time data on temperature, sunlight, and CO2 levels. The smart environmental control system customizes nutrient solutions for each vegetable, and the intelligent irrigation system delivers them precisely to the roots," explained Yan Ji, Operations Director of Zhongnong Jinwang (Beijing) Agricultural Engineering Technology Co., Ltd., the hall’s operator. The facility grows over 30 types of leafy vegetables and solanaceous fruits like peppers, cucumbers, and tomatoes, serving as a demonstration hub for advanced agricultural technologies across Xinjiang.
Promoting the transition from traditional to digital agriculture, Xinjiang Huier Agriculture Group Co., Ltd. has developed smart water-fertilizer integration technology. Using IoT and other technologies, the system enables intelligent drip irrigation, serving over 5 million acres of farmland. This approach saves water, fertilizer, and labor, increasing income by approximately 200 yuan per acre and delivering significant socio-economic benefits.
As a core part of China’s 14th large-scale coal base, the Zhundong Economic and Technological Development Zone is home to the country’s largest contiguous coalfield. To advance digital-real integration, mining companies in Zhundong have introduced autonomous mining trucks. Hundreds of these trucks now operate daily, transporting coal and slag. The No. 2 Mine of the Dajing Mining Area in Zhundong, operated by State Grid Energy Xinjiang Zhundong Coal and Power Co., Ltd., is one of China’s first intelligent demonstration coal mines. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the company invested 330 million yuan to build 65 subsystems, including a cloud computing data center, production command center, and centralized control platform. Through automation and remote monitoring, fixed posts such as pump rooms, compressor rooms, and substations are now unmanned, significantly reducing operational risks and labor intensity. "The mine is 500 meters deep, and real-time production footage is transmitted to the intelligent control center, where workers remotely manage coal mining and transportation," said Fang Zhenzhu, Mine Director of State Grid Energy Xinjiang Zhundong Coal and Power Co., Ltd.
In November 2025, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "High-Standard Digital Park Construction Guidelines," aiming to establish around 200 high-standard digital parks by 2027 and achieve full digital transformation for industrial enterprises above designated size within parks. Currently, industrial enterprises in Xinjiang’s parks are deepening their digital-real integration, rapidly upgrading production scenarios.
Digital intelligence is also enhancing service upgrades. To facilitate customs clearance and support high-level opening and high-quality development, in 2025, the Xinjiang Department of Commerce and eight other departments issued the "Implementation Plan for the Construction of Smart Ports in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region." The plan calls for establishing a smart port operation management platform and a joint dispatch command platform, leveraging AR, 3D mapping, and other technologies to enable data sharing among public security, customs, border inspection, and transport authorities. This creates a unified database and a comprehensive visual management interface for port operations. The Horgos area of the Xinjiang Pilot Free Trade Zone, centered on "smart port" construction, has reshaped cross-border trade, achieving "second-level" vehicle clearance and real-time logistics data sharing. In December 2025, Horgos Highway Port was recognized as a national smart port典型案例 for its integrated smart inspection, intelligent platform, and interconnected services.
Addressing challenges such as data silos and redundant reporting at the grassroots level, the Urumqi High-tech Industrial Development Zone (New Urban Area) has developed "Zhi Gaoxin," a digital application platform covering villages and communities. This platform breaks down departmental data barriers, building a "cloud service network" across 172 villages and communities. It aggregates population, geographic, and other data, enabling interoperability at the district, township, and village levels to support public services. Leveraging large language models and retrieval-augmented generation technology, the Urumqi Economic and Technological Development Zone (Toutunhe District) has launched "AI Xiao Wei," a government service assistant. Its knowledge base covers over 770 administrative items in market regulation, engineering, and livelihood security, allowing citizens to obtain accurate guidance through natural dialogue. "AI Xiao Wei is very smart. Recently, when I went to the government service center with a friend to handle social security matters, it even understood Henan dialect," said Liu Boyu, a resident of Urumqi.
From computing power hubs and smart mines to intelligent agriculture and digital service platforms, Xinjiang’s industrial parks are using digital technology as a robust bridge for upgrading traditional industries and nurturing emerging sectors, making the digital economy a powerful engine for regional high-quality development.
Intelligent transformation has become an imperative for industrial parks. As the world shifts from physical叠加 to data-driven dynamics, the traditional advantages of Xinjiang’s development zones and parks, such as basic infrastructure and policy incentives, are diminishing. The transition to digital intelligence is not merely a technological upgrade but a fundamental restructuring of survival strategies, competition logic, and development paradigms—a leap from physical aggregation to intelligent symbiosis.
In the past, the core competitiveness of these zones lay in cheap land, tax incentives, and centralized infrastructure. However, this factor- and cost-driven model now faces diminishing marginal returns. Today, enterprises seek agile supply chain responses, rapid innovation cycles, precise resource allocation, and sustainable green environments. Digital intelligence, by connecting buildings, enterprises, equipment, and logistics into an intelligent, adaptive network, provides an indispensable digital foundation for high-quality development.
This transformation redefines the value dimensions of development zones. Competitiveness no longer depends solely on land area or the number of enterprises but on the ability to secure critical "innovation windows" and "market response speeds." This shift from static scale to dynamic efficiency will evolve parks from meticulously curated "policy盆景" to vibrant "digital rainforests." While盆景 rely on manual upkeep and fixed forms, rainforests possess self-organizing, adaptive, and evolutionary capabilities. Through big data and AI, park platforms can identify industrial chain bottlenecks, match complementary enterprises and technologies, and even foresee emerging industry trends. Enterprise interactions evolve from mere physical proximity to deep, data-driven collaboration. This intelligent, resilient ecosystem is the strongest immune system against future uncertainties.
Digital-intelligent transformation is no longer an option but a necessity for the future of Xinjiang’s development zones and parks. It requires not only investment in funds and technology but also visionary top-level design, institutional innovation, and a spirit of open collaboration. This "dimensional upgrade" will inevitably phase out followers of the old era and crown the definers of the new.