Data in focus to boost SOEs

China is ramping up efforts to enhance data efficiency and boost the development and utilization of data resources of State-owned enterprises, as part of a broader push to enhance the core competitiveness of such firms and cultivate new quality productive forces, said the country's top data governance regulator.

The National Data Administration, in collaboration with the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, carried out a pilot project and selected 12 centrally administered State-owned enterprises to promote the exploration and utilization of SOEs' data resources.

By 2027, the initiative is expected to further strengthen the data governance capabilities of SOEs, significantly improving the development, utilization and sharing of data resources, effectively enhancing industrial chain collaboration and supporting more than 100,000 small and medium-sized enterprises, the NDA said.

Chen Ronghui, deputy head of the NDA, said at a news conference in Beijing on Tuesday that the initiative will encourage SOEs to integrate data applications across various fields, such as research and development, production, operations, services and management, thereby driving profound changes in corporate governance and business models.

"The initiative mainly focuses on innovating data management mechanisms, cultivating and expanding the data industry, bolstering industrial transformation and upgrading, and optimizing the innovation environment," Chen said.

It mainly covers key fields like energy and power, transportation and logistics, mineral resources, equipment manufacturing, satellite remote sensing, new materials and green and low-carbon industries, promoting the deep collaboration of SOEs and upstream and downstream enterprises of industry chains in the establishment of trusted data space, openness and sharing of data resources, collaborative innovation of data products and innovative applications of artificial intelligence, he said.

Chen said efforts have been made to encourage SOEs to break down data barriers, proactively open their data resources, and enable safe and efficient data circulation across enterprises and industries.

Apart from the centrally administered SOEs, private enterprises, research institutions and professional organizations have participated in the pilot programs.

China unveiled guidelines on promoting the development and utilization of corporate data resources last year in a bid to fully unleash the value of data elements and bolster high-quality development of the digital economy.

The guidelines stipulate 13 measures including improving a mechanism to safeguard corporate data rights and interests, cultivating digital competitiveness of enterprises, as well as fostering an open, transparent and predictable development environment.

Zhang Dong, vice-president of China Mobile, said the company has built a big data platform, enabling the efficient aggregation and processing of massive amounts of data, with the data scale for large model training exceeding 10 trillion tokens.

Zhang said the massive data volume has been applied to deepen intelligent management, with more than 340 models tailored for auditing already built, while improving the auditing efficiency by over 70 percent.

Li Peng, chief artificial intelligence officer of China Southern Power Grid, said the company has launched a trusted data space for the energy industry integrating advanced technologies such as blockchain, privacy computing and data sandboxes.

A trusted data space is an infrastructure for secure data circulation and use, connecting trusted players including data owners, providers, users and developers.

Li said they are also actively promoting the deep integration of data from the power sector with areas such as manufacturing, finance, environmental protection, emergency management and urban governance, adding that over 400 data products have been developed.

The nation's total data output reached 41.06 zettabytes last year, up 25 percent year-on-year, while the added value of core industries of the digital economy accounted for about 10 percent of GDP, said the NDA.

Data elements have been rapidly integrated into various areas like production, circulation and consumption, and are playing an increasingly pivotal role in bolstering industrial upgrade, said Ouyang Rihui, assistant dean of the China Center for Internet Economy Research at Central University of Finance and Economics.

Ouyang said the country's accelerated efforts to drive the development and utilization of data resources of SOEs will propel the deeper integration of data elements with the real economy, boost the efficient application of data resources and promote high-quality development of the digital economy.