China, partner states pooling resources to cut costs, build digital skills: Experts

AI holds the promise of helping emerging economies achieve a century's worth of development in a decade, the World Bank says.

Its World Development Report 2026 says realizing this potential requires more computing power, greater access to local data and AI tools tailored to domestic populations and economies.

Such cooperation has become a key focus of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

Established in May, the SCO Computing Power Industry Alliance aims to promote interconnected computing infrastructure and address the uneven distribution of computing resources.

"Computing power is not an abstract number, but can be directly transformed into industrial benefits and public welfare," said Tang Shuheng, head of the Xinjiang International Integrated Computing Center in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, an emerging hub for computing and AI data centers.

Tang cited the All-in-One Agricultural Dashboard of Kazakhstan, named a 2025 China-SCO Model Case of Digital Economy Cooperation. By combining remote-sensing satellite data with other datasets and the center's supercomputing capacity, the project enables centimeter-level monitoring and analysis of agricultural resources across Kazakhstan, he said.

Beyond monitoring, the project is delivering concrete benefits to farmers. By tailoring AI models to local conditions, the project has helped pilot areas raise wheat yields by 10 to 12 percent while reducing fertilizer use by 20 percent, Tang said.

In collaboration with Xinjiang University, the center also developed a multilingual agricultural expert system in Chinese, Russian and Kazakh, providing more than 200 agricultural cooperatives with technical guidance via mobile phones.

Tang said this people-centered approach puts the SCO's philosophy of improving people's livelihoods into practice.

The model combines China's computing power and algorithms with partner countries' data and local needs, with a joint team implementing solutions on the ground. Such mechanism has since been applied in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, becoming a standard for the center's international cooperation, Tang said.

Zuhriddin Shadmanov, deputy director of Uzbekistan's Center for the Development of Artificial Intelligence and the Digital Economy, said computing power is becoming one of the foundations of the AI economy.

However, "the real problem is access to an entire ecosystem" needed to use it effectively, including reliable connectivity, data infrastructure and qualified specialists, he said.

"This is where regional cooperation can make a real difference," he said.

Looking ahead, Shadmanov identified public services, healthcare, agriculture and food security as AI collaboration areas with "the greatest potential".

Tang said these align with the Xinjiang International Integrated Computing Center's four key areas for cross-border computing cooperation: agriculture, energy, ecology and disaster prevention.

For example, a project in Uzbekistan provides 10-day advance warnings of aphid outbreaks in cotton-growing regions, cutting pest-related losses by 30 percent. Aphid is a bug that feeds by sucking sap from plants. It reproduces rapidly and lives in large colonies that cause extensive damage to crops.

In energy, computing power is playing a critical role in securing supplies and accelerating the green transition. As Central Asia's energy pipelines traverse complex terrain, manual inspections are often inefficient. The center processes large volumes of data, cutting fault response times from 72 hours to just two, Tang said.

China's computing cooperation with SCO countries also creates jobs and nurtures local talent.

"The rollout of these projects creates significant new employment opportunities for young people, including data annotators, drone operators and system maintenance personnel," Tang said. "The technical experts we have trained for Central Asian countries are becoming the backbone of their domestic digital economies."

Mutual gains

Shadmanov said international cooperation should build countries' own capabilities. "This is closely connected to the Shanghai Spirit — mutual benefit means that the benefits should not flow in only one direction, and common development means that AI should help narrow development gaps rather than widen them."

Ma Bin, deputy director of the Center for Shanghai Cooperation Organization Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, said SCO computing cooperation helps member states avoid the high costs and risks of developing foundational technologies while speeding up digital infrastructure growth.

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"It also enables them to leverage cost-effective computing resources for the digital transformation of traditional pillar industries, creating high-tech jobs and cultivating skilled digital talent domestically," Ma said.

"The computing cooperation within the SCO framework diverges from traditional predatory or purely aid-based approaches. Instead, it is exploring a development path that organically integrates regional resources," he said.

"It strives to genuinely safeguard national digital sovereignty while actively promoting inclusive development through multilateral governance."

It offers Global South countries a path to participate more equally in the digital economy and strengthen their own capabilities, Ma said.

Contact the writers at yangran1@chinadaily.com.cn