(Yicai Global) Feb. 7 -- Apple Inc. and Ulanqab, a prefecture-level city in North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, signed a cooperation agreement in regional capital Hohhot for the US tech giant to build an iCloud data center, the state Xinhua News Agency reported.

Under the agreement, Apple will build its second data center in China in Ulanqab and register a company with the local authority for the project's construction and operation. The project is Apple's first data center in North China and will use 100 percent renewable energy sources.

It is scheduled to be completed and put into operation by 2020 and will provide iCloud services for Chinese users. It will serve as a model in accelerating building of a Big Data pilot zone in Inner Mongolia. The center will be Apple's second in China after it unveiled its first one in the southwestern Guizhou province last year to comply with tightening regulations in the country.

Bu Xiaolin, deputy party secretary and governor of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Du Xuejun, party secretary of Ulanqab, Fei Dongbin, deputy party secretary and mayor of the city, and Eric Albert, Apple's senior director for China internet services, attended the signing ceremony, the report added.