On July 8, the 2022 China Digital Economy Innovation Development Conference (CDEIDC) was opened in Shantou, Guangdong Province. The Conference was hosted by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and Guangdong Provincial People’s Government, and organized by Shantou Municipal Government, Department of Industry and Information Technology of Guangdong Province, Guangdong Communications Administration, and China Center for Information Industry Development (CCID).
With the theme of “A Digital Future Uniting All Overseas Chinese - Building A Pioneering Zone for International Digital Economy Cooperation”, the Conference focused on building an important window for international cooperation and innovation in China’s digital economy industry and a national platform for opening up the digital economy to support overseas Chinese. Mr. Zhang Li, Director of CCID, attended the Conference and released the report Current Status and Future Trends of China’s Digital Economy.
▲Zhang Li, Director of CCID
The report shows that in 2021, the value of China’s digital economy reached 37.7 trillion yuan, second only to the United States. With a growth rate of 17.8%, China’s digital economy is the fastest growing in the world, 7.9 percentage points higher than the global average. China has indeed become a digital economy power.
China’s digital economy has demonstrated five new trends and features.
Firstly, the market-oriented allocation of data elements will accelerate. According to CCID forecasts, by 2025, China’s total data volume will account for nearly 30% of the world, making it one of the few countries in the world with largest volume and richest types of data. As the immense value of data elements are yet to be untapped, data sharing, circulation, and mining will surely be an unstoppable trend.
Second, the new governance system that caters to the need of the new era remains to be explored. The digital economy has disrupted people’s lives. However, what comes along with new business models such as new private economy and micro-economy are new problems and challenges. The industrial economy regulations in the past century are no longer fit for the demands of the digital economy era. Therefore, laws and regulations related to the digital economy are being improved.
Third, digitalization and green transformation will go hand in hand. Though the digital economy is oriented to green development, it does not mean absolute “low carbon”. The operation of the large number of digital infrastructure is based on sufficient and stable energy security. In the industrial economy era, there was a regretful need to balance the two at the cost of high energy consumption. But today, the development of the digital economy has brought new possibilities of solving the dilemma.
Fourth, regional development will be based on mutual cooperation for shared benefits. The national 14th Five-Year Plan outlines the importance of promoting the growth and integrated development of city clusters and metropolitan areas. With the support of digital technology, the collaboration, development and resource allocation among different regions will be more dynamic in the future. Geographical locations and administrative divisions will no longer pose any restrictions. The flow of people and information will be smoother, and industrial division of labor will be more scientific. As a result, new regional development pattern featuring mutual cooperation for shared benefits will come into place.
Fifth, the economic takeoff is accompanied by smaller digital divide. At present, the focus of China’s digital economy development is shifting from efficiency and speed to quality and fairness. In the era of digital economy, the “digital divide” has become the new “wealth gap” in different regions and industries and among different groups. Therefore, bridging the digital divide is key to achieving people-oriented and inclusive digital economy in China. It will also be a priority as China seeks to promote international cooperation in global governance.
