(Photo courtesy of Inspur)

A Belt and Road Digital Economy Strategic Alliance on Thursday announced its establishment in Ji’nan, eastern China’s Shandong province, aiming to integrate world-class IT resources for the Digital Silk Road.

The alliance was initiated by Shandong-based e-information technology company Inspur and co-founded by international big names including Cisco, IBM, Diebold Nixdorf, and Ericsson. The founders vowed to integrate their cutting-edge IT products, technologies, and solutions to accelerate the construction of the Digital Silk Road.

Three Chinese national financial institutions are also members of the alliance, the Export-Import Bank of China, China Development Bank, and China Export & Credit Insurance Corporation.

It is reportedly the first platform set up by global technology giants to serve the Belt and Road Initiative.

“Inspur hopes to partner with top technology companies in the world and China’s national financial institutions, help countries along the Belt and Road to solve their insufficient funding and technical problems in informatization construction, and bring the benefits of digital economy development to people there,” Peter Sun, Chairman and CEO of Inspur Group, said at the alliance launching ceremony.

Countries along the Belt and Road will be able enjoy services provided by the alliance, including new datacenters, cloud services, smart finance, smart home, smart taxation, smart cities, and other total technology solutions. Projects will first be launched in South Asian and African countries, such as Thailand, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Tunisia, Tanzania, Zambia, and Kenya.

More companies with top informatization products and technologies from across the globe will be gradually invited to join the alliance together with more financial institutions.