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Digital innovation boosts urban governance

Author  :  WEI SIYU     Source  :    Chinese Social Sciences Today     2021-09-24

Digitization is an important impetus for China to enter high-quality development. Recently, Zhejiang, Shanxi, Shandong, and Guangdong provinces and Tianjin Municipality successively issued plans for the development of digital government and digital economy during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021–25) period, indicating that the country’s digitization has entered a period of accelerated development.

Data as a factor of production

“Data is an important factor of production and productive force,” said Ni Guangnan, a member of the Industrial Transformation Advisory Committee of the Institute of Internet Industry at Tsinghua University. Data is of great significance for improving social governance capabilities and ensuring national cyber security.

Cities will become the leaders of the digital society and the digital age. Liu Yuanchun, vice president of Renmin University of China, said that the advent of the digital age has fundamentally changed the traditional positioning of cities during the industrial civilization period, and has promoted a series of changes in the traditional functions and governance of cities.

Digital transformation is inseparable from the connection and sharing of data. Digital reform will lead to a comprehensive transformation of economic and social systems, as well as their environment, structure, and arrangements.

Digital transformation requires the support of open data. Wu Xun, a professor from the Institute for Public Policy at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, elaborated on the two features of open data. First of all, open data is freely available, which is to say anyone can directly download such public information and data without paying for it. Second, open data must be complete, original information that has not been aggregated by statistical analysis.

“Data openness can improve the transparency and integrity of the public sector, and introduce more participants and stakeholders into the policy-making process,” Wu said.

People-centered development

In 2020, the development of digital technology provided important support for the refinement and deepening of the prevention and control of the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, many scholars have regarded 2020 as the beginning of digital reform.

Regarding the future of digitization, Yu Jianxing, president of Zhejiang Gongshang University, predicted that the property rights, transactions, data algorithms, and rules concerning the relationship between data ethics and individuals and organizations will gradually become the underlying rules of social operating mechanisms.

The core subject of a city is people, and urban governance innovation should strive to meet the people’s aspirations for a better life. In this regard, Yu predicted that most public services will be provided through platforms, and government and enterprises as market entities will become increasingly platform-based and structured. Meanwhile, economic and social operations are becoming less and less dependent on intermediaries. As numerous “standardized intermediary targets” are achieved by technology, individuals and organizations will increasingly pursue innovative and personalized work content.

Wu Jiannan, a distinguished professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, noted that in the process of continuous application of digital governance technology, it is necessary to emphasize the participation of multiple entities to facilitate a social governance model based on collaboration, participation, and common interests.

In addition, he also suggested transforming from technology-oriented to people-oriented development, designing application scenarios based on people’s satisfaction.

When drawing a blueprint, it is necessary to encourage front-runners to explore the complete plan and implementation mechanism of digital reform, while staying cautious about the expansion of public power, Yu suggested. While it is important to improve the efficiency of economic development, it is more important to enhance the people’s well-being.

Regarding the ultimate vision of technological innovation to empower urban governance, Zhu Chunkui, a professor from the School of International Relations and Public Affairs at Fudan University, expressed his hope that through technological innovation, the people will have a broad voice in decision-making that affects their lives. In addition, current policies need to reserve room for the development needs of future generations.

Editor: Yu Hui

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