The digital economy is a new socioeconomic operational mode with data as a key production factor. In recent years, the scale of China’s digital economy has expanded rapidly and has become a key driving force for economic growth. Given the broad room for improvements in the penetration and application of the digital economy into China’s traditional industries, the future development of China’s digital economy should focus on promoting the extensive and in-depth integration with the real economy.

Mutual promotion

The deep integration of digital and real economies is subject to the objective laws of digital economic development, and is an inevitable choice for the promotion of long-term and healthy development of the digital economy. Fostering the in-depth integration of the two is a significant component of constructing a modern industrial system and achieving high-quality development.

Firstly, the deep integration of digital and real economies is a vital direction for the future development of the digital economy. With the application and optimization of cutting-edge technologies such as the Internet of Things, new business forms arising from such integration have gradually become the leading direction in digital economic development.

Secondly, the digital economy brings important transformation opportunities and key technical support to the high-quality development of the real economy. Over the past decade, China’s real economy has made remarkable achievements. The integrated development of emerging digital technologies with the real economy can generate many benefits including improved production efficiency. It can bring significant historical opportunities for digital, networked, and intelligent transformation of traditional industries.

Lastly, the real economy provides abundant application scenarios for frontier areas of the digital economy, such as digital technologies and digital production factors. Digital technologies require a foundation of varied application scenarios and vast data resources, and a driving force of optimized machine learning algorithms. The application of digital technologies and data production factors relies on industry mechanisms to create and optimize the data models. Insights and feedback from iterative analysis are incorporated back into the models, improving their accuracy.

Digital future

At present, implementing the new development philosophy, fostering the new development pattern, and promoting high-quality development, work together to upgrade requirements for the development of China’s digital economy. The following aspects of in-depth digital and real economy integration should be prioritized.

First, the realization of independent and controllable digital key core technologies should be accelerated, and the resilience and security of the industrial and supply chains improved. To accomplish this, underdeveloped areas should be improved first. For technologies under containment, such as high-end chips, various policies and means, including government procurement, should be adopted comprehensively, and R&D and innovation strengthened. Furthermore, strategically advantageous areas, such as 5G, should be further developed. Next, “blueprints” should be drawn in advance. Pre-research should be carried out as early as possible and demonstrative applications around the subdivisions of potential disruptive innovations, such as carbon-based chips and quantum computing, should be promoted.

Second, the layout and operational modes should be optimized for digital infrastructures and the threshold reduced for industrial digital transformation. Firstly, focus should be placed on improving the informatization and digital foundations of traditional industries. Investments in quasi-public service fields, such as generic digital technologies, should be highlighted. Secondly, the design and deployment of new infrastructure should be accelerated. Specialized industrial internet platforms should be developed according to local conditions and requirements. Platform enterprises should be promoted through the adoption of market development methods such as user subsidies.

Third, the digital talent training and introduction system should be improved to support digital transformation and high-quality development. In pursuit of that goal, digital talent training modes should be explored, particularly for composite skills. Next, the top-level design to introduce high-level digital talent should be executed properly. Furthermore, the digital talent training system should be established and optimized. Curricula and training modes should be comprehensively optimized and adjusted to form a digital talent training system that organically connects basic education, higher education, vocational education, and skills training.

Fourth, a data trading and circulation system should be established to fully tap the potential value of industrial big data. Firstly, the classification and grading standards of industrial data should be implemented and refined, and a multi-level industrial big data center system should be established to provide institutional and infrastructure support for data trading, circulation, development, and utilization. Secondly, traditional enterprises should improve their data asset management awareness and capabilities. Thirdly, professional industrial data service providers should be cultivated, and an industrial big data trading mechanism, dominated by data services, should be built.

Fifth, high-level international exchanges and cooperation should be fostered to optimize the external environment for the development of the digital economy. China should fully leverage the advantages of its super large-scale market, utilize domestic circulation to attract global resource factors, strengthen international exchanges and cooperation in the digital economy, and further promote institutional opening up. Firstly, the cooperation in and exchange of digital infrastructure, digital technology and related industries should be strengthened. The range of commercial application of digital technologies and data factors should be expanded within the frameworks of the Belt and Road Initiative, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, and other regional agreements. Secondly, the World Trade Organization, the Group of 20, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, and other international organizations and platforms should be leveraged to actively carry out institutional cooperation internationally. We should promote the establishment of cross-border data flow mechanisms, continue to promote the signing of international cooperation agreements such as the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement, and actively participate in international exchanges, consultations, and negotiations on important issues such as digital governance.

Chen Nan and Cai Yuezhou (research fellow) are from the Institute of Quantitative and Technological Economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.