China's accelerated construction of hi-tech infrastructure and deepening reforms expected to drive high-quality development of digital economy

China's data industry is poised for robust growth in the coming years as the country will give full play to its advantages in massive data resources and promote the in-depth integration of digital technologies and the real economy to nurture new quality productive forces, said officials, experts and company executives.

Highlighting that data serve as a new type of production factor, they said China's emphasis on accelerating the construction of digital infrastructure and deepening reforms related to the market-oriented allocation of data elements will drive industrial upgrade and promote the high-quality development of the digital economy.

As data elements have become key and strategic resources that drive economic growth in the digital era, facilitating 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 huge value of data elements, they added.

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Liu Liehong, head of the National Data Administration, the country's top data governance regulator, said data elements are speeding up their integration with economic and social development, injecting momentum into the transformation of various industries and stimulating innovation vitality.

Liu said China has favorable conditions for the development of the data industry, given its world-leading data infrastructure, ever-increasing technological innovation capacities, broad application scenarios, high-quality data sets and supportive policy measures.

He made the remarks at the recently concluded China International Big Data Industry Expo 2025, which was held in Guiyang, capital of Southwest China's Guizhou province.

"In recent years, the rapid development of artificial intelligence has led to an explosive increase in demand for data, greatly driving the construction of high-quality data sets and accelerating breakthroughs in technologies such as data annotation, data governance, data mining and analysis, and secure circulation," he noted.

The added value of China's digital economy is expected to reach around 49 trillion yuan ($6.9 trillion) by the end of this year, accounting for about 35 percent of GDP, according to Liu.

China's data sector has made great strides during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period. Statistics from the National Data Development Research Institute show that the number of data-related enterprises in China surpassed 400,000 in 2024, while the market scale of the nation's data industry reached 5.86 trillion yuan.

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 National Data Administration.

The country has rolled out nearly 30 policy measures related to the development and utilization of public data resources and urban digital transformation. It has advanced the construction of data infrastructure, such as a national integrated computing power network, and expanded the application scenarios of data in a wide range of sectors.

Liu said the country had built 4.55 million 5G base stations by the end of June, and the number of gigabit broadband users had reached 226 million. China's total intelligent computing capacity had reached around 780,000 PFlops, ranking second globally.

PFlops, or petaflops, measure computational performance, and one unit represents 1 quadrillion floating-point operations per second.

Looking ahead, he said the country will enhance the supply capacity of data resources, expand the application scenarios of data in key fields, cultivate data enterprises, and optimize the data industry to boost the development of the digital economy and nurture new quality productive forces.

Jiang Xiaojuan, a professor at the University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said: "The application of data across various fields has injected fresh impetus into China's industrial development."

The industrialization of digital and AI technologies, Jiang added, will significantly improve production efficiency, optimize the allocation of resources and lower costs.

The digital economy has played a vital role in bolstering the transformation of manufacturing, services, consumption and international trade, and in driving overall economic growth, she said.

It is vital to give full play to the multiplier effects of data elements, expand data applications to a diverse range of sectors and increase the supply of high-quality data, Jiang said.

In February 2023, China unveiled a plan for overall digital development, vowing to make important progress in the construction of a "Digital China" by 2025. By 2035, the nation is expected to be at the global forefront of digital development.

China will ramp up efforts to advance the high-quality development of the data industry, with the compound annual growth rate of the data industry surpassing 15 percent by 2029, according to a guideline jointly released by the National Development and Reform Commission, the National Data Administration and four other government departments in December.

By 2029, the structure of the data industry will be significantly optimized and the supply capacity of data products and services will be greatly improved, while a batch of data enterprises with global competitiveness will be cultivated, the guideline said.

More efforts will be made to accelerate the technological innovation of data, improve the development and utilization level of data resources, promote the circulation and trading of data, and strengthen the construction of data infrastructure, it said.

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

Data have the attributes of commodities, which could be effectively allocated through market evaluation and trading, so as to create huge economic and social value, Ouyang noted.

He said the country's accelerated efforts to develop the data industry and build digital infrastructure will propel the deeper integration of data elements with the real economy, boost the efficient development and application of data resources and promote the high-quality development of the digital economy.

Yang Jie, chairman of China Mobile, the world's largest telecom carrier in terms of mobile subscribers, said the scale and quality of data have become the driving force for accelerating AI innovation and breakthroughs.

China Mobile is strengthening efforts to increase the supply of high-quality data, boost the efficient circulation of data and speed up the high-level utilization of data, in order to push forward the deeper integration of data with various areas of the economy and society, Yang added.

China's digital transformation has made great achievements, with the Digital China Development Index climbing to 150.51 in 2024, up 10.65 percent from the previous year, according to the National Data Development Research Institute. The index is a benchmark for the assessment of China's digital progress.

Digital transformation in traditional industries, such as manufacturing, transportation and energy, has become the main battlefield in the development of the digital economy, said Mei Hong, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Mei underscored the importance of establishing a data elements market, promoting the confirmation of data-related rights, and exploring a data pricing mechanism and value assessment system to give full play to the massive value of data.

Pan Helin, a member of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's Expert Committee for Information and Communication Economy, said: "As a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation is evolving, promoting the in-depth integration of the digital economy with the real economy is a necessary requirement for establishing a modern industrial system and a strategic choice of forging new competitive advantages globally."

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The move to develop the digital economy and data industry will enhance the resilience of industrial and supply chains, advancing new industrialization and realizing Chinese modernization, Pan said.

He added that a bigger push is needed to reinforce the dominant position of enterprises in boosting sci-tech advancements, increase financial support for innovation-oriented tech companies, and strengthen the training of high-caliber talent.

Qi Xiangdong, chairman of Chinese cybersecurity company QAX, said new cybersecurity-related challenges, such as privacy and data leakage, have appeared along with the development of AI and data sharing, emphasizing that safeguarding data security is vital for bolstering data transactions and developing the digital economy.

Qi said the production, application and circulation of data are now facing security issues, while calling for establishing a unified and systematic network security system to fend off potential cyberattacks.

Contact the writer at fanfeifei@chinadaily.com.cn