Agency expected to oversee various data-related issues LONDON: China is planning to create a new government agency to centralize management of the country’s vast stores of data, in a bid to address businesses’ data-security practices and streamline its regulatory structure, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The new agency, which is set to become the top Chinese regulator on various data-related issues, will be discussed and approved at the National People’s Congress during its annual session on March 13, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter. The new national data bureau would set and enforce data-collection and sharing rules for businesses and decide whether multinational companies can export data generated by their operations in China, it said. It would also investigate various issues in the digital domain and identify data-security vulnerabilities that are prone to cyberattack, the newspaper reported. Chinese regulators recently eased some deadline pressure on multinational companies struggling to comply with new rules requiring them to seek approval to export user data.