Digital China is moving towards a deeper and more practical digital economy.

"Vigorously develop the digital economy, improve the level of routine supervision, and support the development of the platform economy." On the morning of March 5, the first session of the 14th National People's Congress opened.

From "promoting the accelerated growth of the digital economy" in 2017, to "strengthening the digital economy" in 2019, to "comprehensively promoting 'Internet +' and creating new advantages in the digital economy" in 2020, to "accelerating digital development and creating new advantages in the digital economy" in 2021, to "promoting the development of the digital economy and improving the governance of the digital economy" in 2022, and this year's "vigorously developing the digital economy", "digital economy" has been written into the government work report for the sixth time, fully demonstrating the strategic position of the digital economy in the national economy and social development.

In addition, the release of the "Overall Layout Plan for the Construction of Digital China" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan") before the two sessions and the announcement of the establishment of the National Data Bureau during the two sessions have accelerated the digital economy strategy. The proposals and bills submitted by the representatives and members during the two sessions also provide suggestions for the digital economy.

The "Overall Layout Plan for the Construction of Digital China" was released, highlighting the "two realities"

The digital economy is developing at an unprecedented speed, with a wide range of influence and a profound impact. It is becoming a key force in restructuring global resource factors, reshaping the global economic structure and changing the global competitive landscape. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the CPC Central Committee has attached great importance to the development of the digital economy and has elevated it to a national strategy.

In recent years, my country has attached great importance to the development of the digital economy and has achieved fruitful results in promoting the construction of the digital economy. According to statistics, by the end of 2022, my country has built and opened 2.31 million 5G base stations, realizing "5G in every county" and "broadband in every village". There are more than 6.5 million standard racks in use in data centers across the country, and the total computing power ranks second in the world; the CNC rate of key processes in key industrial enterprises has reached 58.6%, and the penetration rate of digital R&D and design tools has reached 77%; in 2022, the software industry's revenue exceeded 10 trillion yuan, the industrial Internet was fully integrated into 45 major categories of the national economy, and there were 240 influential industrial Internet platforms.

Of course, there is still a long way to go for the digital economy to go deeper and more practical, better integrate into thousands of industries, and enable high-quality economic and social development. The rapid development of the digital economy is inseparable from the strong promotion at the government level, and top-level design is indispensable for this.

The release of the "Plan" clarifies the "2522" overall framework for the construction of Digital China, and proposes that by 2025, a basic integrated promotion pattern of horizontal connection, vertical connection, and strong coordination will be formed, and the construction of Digital China will make important progress; by 2035, the level of digital development will be among the best in the world, and Digital China will achieve significant achievements. From top-level design to implementation, the "Plan" points out the direction for my country's medium- and long-term digital construction and development. It is worth mentioning that the "Plan" emphasizes "strengthening organizational leadership", "improving systems and mechanisms", and "taking the work of Digital China construction as a reference for the assessment and evaluation of relevant party and government leaders."

Wang Chunhui, a member of the Information and Communications Economics Expert Committee of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, believes that the above content fully reflects the two major characteristics of the "Plan": solid responsibility and solid content. "Under the centralized and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee, the Central Cyberspace Security and Informatization Committee will strengthen the overall coordination, overall promotion, and supervision of the implementation of the Digital China construction. It will give full play to the role of local party committees' Cyberspace Security and Informatization Committees, improve the deliberation and coordination mechanism, place digital development in an important position in the work of the region, and effectively implement responsibilities."

With a framework to guide, goals to direct, methods to follow and responsibility to assess, the "Plan" will promote the effective implementation of the digital economy strategy.

Multiple representatives offer suggestions for the digital economy from multiple perspectives

As the top priority of the government's work, the digital economy has also become a hot topic among NPC deputies and CPPCC members during the two sessions, and has frequently been on the hot search list. Deputies and members have broken down the digital economy topics from a segmented perspective, including empowering the real economy, digital intelligence integration, artificial intelligence, and the flow of data elements, and provided practical and implementable thoughts and suggestions for promoting digital transformation and accelerating the development of the digital economy.

The integration and complementarity of 5G networks and gigabit optical networks together constitute the "dual wheels" and "two wings" that help the development of the digital economy and accelerate the pace of digital transformation.

Regarding 5G, at the "Minister's Channel" of this year's two sessions, Jin Zhuanglong, Minister of Industry and Information Technology, introduced that the next focus is to maintain the good development momentum of 5G, and specific measures include construction, use, and research. "Construction" means building more base stations. This year, 600,000 new 5G base stations will be built and put into operation, and the total scale of 5G base stations will exceed 2.9 million base stations. "Use" means expanding 5G applications and implementing the "5G+" action plan. "Research" means giving full play to the advantages of the ultra-large-scale market and the complete industrial system, focusing on industry, academia, research and application, strengthening international cooperation, and accelerating 6G research and development.

Regarding gigabit optical networks, Ye Meilan, deputy to the National People's Congress and president of Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, suggested: "Vigorously promote new infrastructure, further increase the universal coverage of gigabit optical networks in urban and rural areas, comprehensively build an all-optical transport capacity network, and lay a solid foundation for the digital economy; at the same time, promote high-quality economic development by forging optical communication long-board industries through promoting construction through use and strengthening and supplementing supply chains."

The popularity of ChatGPT has sparked heated discussions: When will AI mature and be commercially available? How strong is my country in AI, which is slightly inferior to ChatGPT? In response, Wang Zhigang, Minister of Science and Technology, said: my country has made many arrangements and conducted research in AI for several years, and has achieved some results, but we have to wait and see whether it can achieve the same results as OpenAI.

The mission of the digital economy is to integrate into the real economy and enable the digital transformation of thousands of industries. Among them, advanced manufacturing is the "vanguard" of digital-real integration. Cheng Wei, a member of the National People's Congress and general manager of Hunan Mobile, believes that the core of advanced manufacturing is the deep integration of new-generation information technology and traditional manufacturing. In order to solve the shortcomings of information and communication technology in empowering advanced manufacturing clusters, Cheng Wei put forward three suggestions: first, increase support for digital infrastructure; second, carry out the construction of digital demonstration zones for advanced manufacturing clusters; third, build a complete data resource application system.

Establishing the National Data Bureau: The development of digital economy is an inevitable trend

During the two sessions, the State Council proposed a proposal to submit a plan for the reform of the State Council institutions for review, among which the establishment of the National Data Bureau attracted much attention. Why establish the National Data Bureau? How to break down barriers, eliminate islands, and achieve coordinated management of data resources?

In fact, the establishment of the National Data Bureau was not sudden. The policies previously introduced by our country had already laid the groundwork.

With the development of the digital economy, data elements are becoming the most advanced and active new production factors besides labor, capital, land, technology, and management, driving the real economy to undergo profound changes in production subjects, production objects, production tools, and production methods. The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed to build a unified national market, deepen the market-oriented reform of factors, and build a high-standard market system. In December 2022, the "Opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Building a Data Basic System to Better Play the Role of Data Elements" ("Twenty Data Articles") was issued, focusing on data property rights, circulation and transactions, income distribution, and security governance, and systematically building the "four beams and eight pillars" of the data basic system, which pointed out the direction for fully activating the potential of data elements, strengthening, optimizing, and expanding the digital economy, and enhancing new momentum for economic development.

During the two sessions, many representatives and deputies gave suggestions on the management of data elements.

In order to remove the pain points and bottlenecks that restrict the release of public data value, fully mobilize the enthusiasm and initiative of the government, enterprises, society and other parties, and promote the orderly sharing, opening up and standardized use of public data resources under a legal and compliant framework, Chen Li, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and general manager of Shanghai Mobile, suggested: First, strengthen the construction of public data management organizations; second, improve the basic system of public data management; third, improve the third-party authorized operation of public data.

How to give full play to the value of data elements and promote the construction of a unified data element market in an orderly manner? Yang Jianyu, deputy to the National People's Congress, secretary of the Party Committee, chairman and general manager of China Mobile Zhejiang Company, actively suggested setting up a national-level data element market-oriented reform pilot zone, promoting the market-oriented operation of the data element exchange platform, innovating a new "over-the-counter" trading model for data elements, improving the technical capabilities of data element circulation, and accelerating the cultivation and construction of a data element market.

Yu Xiaohui, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and president of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, brought three proposals: First, accelerate the deep integration of the digital economy and the real economy and promote the large-scale development of the industrial Internet; second, build a data infrastructure system to better play the role of data elements; third, better participate in global digital governance and promote the formation of a fair and reasonable global digital governance system.

Zhang Min, deputy to the National People's Congress and secretary of the Party Committee and general manager of China Telecom Hubei Company, proposed building a national data circulation platform in central China to activate the value of data elements.

Today, the upcoming establishment of the National Data Bureau is a general trend in the development of the digital economy and an inevitable move to accelerate the digital transformation. According to the plan, the National Data Bureau will be responsible for coordinating and promoting the construction of data infrastructure, coordinating the integration, sharing and development and utilization of data resources, and coordinating the planning and construction of Digital China, digital economy and digital society, etc., and will be managed by the National Development and Reform Commission.

"The establishment of the National Data Bureau will change the phenomenon of 'nine dragons governing the water' in my country's data management and governance. The country will coordinate the construction of basic data systems, the integration, sharing, development and utilization of data resources, and the planning and construction of Digital China, digital economy, and digital society. It is of great and far-reaching significance." Wang Chunhui believes.