At the Global Digital Economy Conference 2023 held in early July, experts highlighted the great significance of digital technology as one of the important drivers of global technological and industrial revolutions, saying that developing the digital economy is a strategic choice for seizing new opportunities amidst the revolutions.

Digital economy’s impact and trend

Zhuang Rongwen, deputy head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, director of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, and director of the Cyberspace Administration of China, noted in his speech at the opening ceremony that the digital economy has increasingly become a vital force in reorganizing global factor resources, restructuring the world economy, and reshaping the global economic landscape.

In late 2022, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council released a comprehensive guideline aimed at building basic data systems, as part of China’s broader efforts to fully leverage the potential of data resources. Notably, this guideline marked the first official recognition of data as a crucial production factor. Mei Hong, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that the digital economy represents a novel economic paradigm that succeeds the agricultural and industrial economies. Mei emphasized that its development necessitates three essential pillars: market dynamics, technological advancements, and effective governance.

Alongside the rapid development of digital technology, the digital economy will pose a series of challenges to government supervision and international governance systems, Mei warned, adding that the next 10 years will see the global governance system profoundly reshaped.

At the main forum of the conference, Yu Xiaohui, president of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, introduced the White Paper on Global Digital Economy 2023. The document holistically presents trends and dynamics of the digital economy in China, the United States, Germany, Japan, and South Korea, and offers in-depth analysis of worldwide progress in key fields like 5G, artificial intelligence, digital industries, digital transformation, and data factor.

Yu noted that at present, over 60% of the global advancements in 5G technology applications are centered around industrial transformation, with a particular focus on enhancing user interaction experiences. However, Yu also acknowledged that substantial reforms in practical applications will require a considerable amount of time to materialize.

This year’s proposal of 6G technology is a landmark event in the digital economy, Yu said. Among other feasible innovations, the integration of human perception and communication will endow 6G with artificial intelligence genes and revolutionize future applications, enabling immersive communication in combination with the metaverse.

In Yu’s opinion, artificial intelligence and 5G and 6G technologies are currently the two most important variables in digital technology, and will remain so for some time. Digital technology will remain the principal driving force behind global industrial reform for a long time to come, he predicted.

Progress in China

Since the 18th CPC National Congress, China has witnessed swift development of its digital economy. By 2022, the size of the digital economy had reached an impressive 50.2 trillion yuan (roughly $7 trillion), up 10.3% year-on-year. It is estimated to exceed 60 trillion yuan by 2025.

Wang Qinmin, vice chairman of the 12th CPPCC National Committee and director of the National E-government Expert Committee, stressed that the key to progress in the digital economy lies in first modernizing the digital economy’s industrial system, thereby fostering a development environment that encourages everyone to start businesses and innovate.

Second, it is necessary to build an intelligent and efficient e-government as well as an inclusive, convenient digital society, accelerate institutional innovation, and enhance individual digital literacy, Wang said. He also called for efforts to harness the empowering role of digital resources and implement a big data strategy to facilitate the seamless circulation of data resources.

The conference was co-hosted by the People’s Government of Beijing Municipality, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Commerce, the Cyberspace Administration of China, and the China Association for Science and Technology.