China stays at forefront of global digital growth

China will intensify efforts to accelerate the construction of digital infrastructure and deepen reforms to the market-oriented allocation of data elements, as part of a broader push to develop new quality productive forces and advance the building of a "Digital China", the country's top data governance regulator said on Thursday.

With the digital economy's emergence as a key engine of China's economic growth, experts said the country's accelerated push to facilitate the development of the data industry is conducive to bolstering the circulation, transaction and utilization of data, nurturing a national integrated data market and unleashing the value of massive data resources.

Liu Liehong, head of the National Data Administration, said at a news conference in Beijing that China is at the global forefront in the development of digital infrastructure, with remarkable achievements made during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period. The country had built 4.55 million 5G base stations by the end of June, with the number of gigabit broadband users reaching 226 million. The total scale of China's computing power ranked second in the world, Liu noted.

China has become the world's largest holder of artificial intelligence patents, owning about 60 percent of the global total, and has achieved breakthroughs in core technologies including chips, homegrown operating systems and humanoid robots.

According to Liu, investment in digital infrastructure has bolstered the robust development of integrated circuits, communication network equipment and terminal products, leading to the emergence of new business models and formats. He added that the National Data Administration rolled out 21 policy documents concerning the development and use of public data resources, while more than 10 policies relating to data property rights will be introduced soon.

China's data industry, which serves as a crucial link of the digital economy, has grown at a fast clip in recent years. According to the National Data Development Research Institute, the number of data enterprises surpassed 400,000 in 2024, and the market scale of the data industry reached 5.86 trillion yuan ($817 billion), surging 117 percent since the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) period.

Highlighting that the data industry is expected to grow rapidly in the coming years, Liu said the administration will establish pilot projects for data industry clusters and cultivate diverse business entities, in a bid to support the development of new quality productive forces and build up new growth drivers.

China's total data output reached 41.06 zettabytes last year, while the added value of the digital economy's core industries accounted for about 10 percent of GDP, according to the National Data Administration.

Ouyang Rihui, assistant dean of the China Center for Internet Economy Research at the Central University of Finance and Economics, said, "As a new type of production factor, data has been rapidly integrated into various areas like production, circulation, and consumption, and is playing an increasingly pivotal role in bolstering industrial upgrades."

He said the country's accelerated development of digital infrastructure and the data industry will propel the deeper integration of data elements with the real economy, boost the efficient development and application of data resources and inject new momentum into the high-quality development of the digital economy.

China, as the world's largest data producer, has unique advantages in accelerating the development of its digital economy, said Jiang Xiaojuan, a professor at the University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. She added that the in-depth integration of data with traditional industries will improve production efficiency, optimize the allocation of resources and create novel business models and social value. It is of vital importance to give full play to the multiplier effects of data elements, expand data applications to a wider range of sectors and increase the supply of high-quality data, Jiang said.

fanfeifei@chinadaily.com.cn