FOREWORD W elcome to our September edition of Construction Global ! Last year alone , there were 772mn people online in China , representing 56 % of the country ’ s 1.4bn population . With a huge customer base and with China looking to surpass the United States as the world leader in GDP terms , it is no surprise that many major international organisations and businesses are increasingly turning towards the country . There are , however , many hurdles to clear as access to the technology sector in particular is still subject to tight regulation . “ Those figures alone show that it truly is an amazing market ,” says Oliver Jones , Chief Executive of data centre developers Chayora . “ But in order to be able to have access to this massive and valuable population , you cannot operate effectively from overseas . You have to have your servers inside mainland China , in a properly licenced data centre and that ’ s what starts to present challenges to aspirant new entrants .”
We also spend some time with Ben Highfield , Surface Product Manager at Microsoft , who tells us why its range of touchscreen devices is revolutionising architectural design . Launched in 2012 , Microsoft ’ s Surface range of devices , with convertible desktops , interactive whiteboards and industry-led software has empowered architects to better envisage and inform their projects . “ We feel we have a fantastic portfolio of devices now that really complement the industry ,” he explains .
We also chew the fat with Epcor Water and look at how unmanned aerial vehicles are changing construction with Mike Winn of Drone Deploy .
Elsewhere we flag up the best construction conferences in town as well as Europe ’ s top ten housing developers .
Enjoy !
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Andrew Woods
Editor andrew . woods @ bizclikmedia . com www . constructionglobal . com