China Unicom, the world's third-biggest mobile provider, will build a US$387 million global center in Hong Kong. The facility will be China Unicom's first and largest overseas facility.

State-owned China Unicom has bought 1.5 hectares of land at Tseung Kwan O Industrial Estate located three kilometers southeast of Tseung Kwan O New Town in the New Territories to build its new facility. The facility is expected to be completed by first-half 2016. 

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China Unicom said the build-out of the global center is a key milestone in its global infrastructure and business strategy. It said the new facility, which was approved by the Hong Kong Science & Technology Parks in May 2013, will boost its competitiveness in international markets.

China Unicom decided to set up shop in Hong Kong as part of its move to expand into global markets and move away from being a purely China-based brand. The center is expected to create some 200 jobs in Hong Kong.

It said the Hong Kong facility will support six key functions: serve as a global network operations center with a submarine-cable landing station; be a global network solutions and support center; a cloud computing service platform; an Internet data center Hong Kong service platform and a product innovation and development center.

China Unicom believes Asia-Pacific is the world's fastest-growing market for cloud storage, and could grow at a compound annual growth rate of 29 percent between 2009 and 2018. Its new Hong Kong facility was planned to meet this increasing demand for data services.

The new center will support operations of China Unicom Hong Kong, its largest overseas subsidiary, which was established in 2000. China Unicom Hong Kong has been offering international wholesale voice and data enterprise, mobile, Internet data center, and telecom consulting services.