North China's Shanxi province will promote the application of big data in 12 fields -- including employment, social security, senior care services and urban-rural construction and development -- to improve the levels of service to the public, according to a circular released by the Shanxi provincial authority, to be implemented on July 1.

The circular encourages social service institutions, public service companies and big data producers and operators to collect and store data according to the law, so as to promote more services to users.

The Shanxi Provincial Government will promote the co-construction, sharing and interconnection of new infrastructure such as the next-generation internet, new-generation mobile communications technology, data centers and industrial internet.

Meanwhile, the government will set up special funds to subsidize big data infrastructure construction. 

The funds will also reward qualified big data companies and institutes according to their operating conditions or contributions to local finance and give bonuses to those involved in the integrated application of industry bid data, big data technological innovations and training of personnel in big data. 

To date, Shanxi province has already developed a number of big data solutions and products that have been applied to people's lives.

For example, there is a one-stop financial settlement system targeting poor households that was developed by Shanxi Zhijie Software Engineering Co.

Officials said this system covers 212 medical institutions in 13 counties and districts in Shanxi and to date has served 151,800 poor households, helping them reduce the burden of their medical expenses.