GUIYANG, May 27 (Xinhua) -- A China-India IT industry cluster was launched Sunday in southwest China's Guizhou Province, in a bid to step up cooperation between the two countries through integrated development.

Guiyang, capital of Guizhou, has joined hands with NASSCOM, an Indian non-profit IT industry association, and NIIT, an Indian talent development enterprise, to launch a series of cooperation projects.

The NASSOM (Guiyang) IT Industry Cluster District and the NIIT Big Data College were inaugurated on a forum at China International Big Data Industry Expo 2018.

Guiyang, also known as China's "big data valley," saw its big data enterprises gaining 81.7 billion yuan (12.8 billion U.S. dollars) in revenue in 2017, contributing 33 percent to the city's annual GDP, official data showed.

Located in Guiyang's High-tech Zone, the 8,000-square-meter NASSOM (Guiyang) IT Industry Cluster District is to become an important base for Guizhou's software and service outsourcing industry, according to the forum.

In three to five years, the district is to achieve over 275 million yuan in revenue, by hosting more than 25 enterprises as well as more than 500 software engineers.

The NIIT Big Data College will offer various training programs including big data technology, network development and business intelligence analysis.