HEBEI PROVINCE, CHINA-Range Technology and IBM are partnering to build a 6.2-million-square-foot data center complex here. The center, to be complete by 2016, would be the largest in Asia.

The complex will help companies across China with outsourcing services, business continuity and disaster recovery, as well as cloud computing storage and mobile device management. The property will be called the Cloud Computing Data Center.

Madam Zhou Chaonan, chairman of Range, said in a statement that the initiative plays a critical role in the economic development of China in light of the pressing demand for managing hosting in the areas of cloud computing and mobile devices. The company will also provide the province with advanced capabilities to conduct health care projects, particularly in the electronic medical records area.

The market for China’s data center services reached more than $667 million in 2009 and is forecast to grow to about $2.5 billion by 2016, according to International Data Corp.

Other digital centers are being built across the world, including new centers in Chicago and New York City. In a recent fourth quarter report, Michael Foust, CEO of Digital Realty Trust, said current enterprise demand is driven by the consistent growth of applications in corporate IT departments as well as growth in providers of collocation and managed services.