Beijing will strive to become China's first comprehensive pilot project for opening up the entire digital economy industry chain

On January 31st, the full report on the implementation of Beijing's 2022 National Economic and Social Development Plan and the 2023 National Economic and Social Development Plan (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") was released. The report proposes 10 main tasks and measures to achieve the 2023 economic and social development plan. In terms of developing the digital economy, the report clearly states that "we will focus on promoting digital empowerment of cities, industries, and daily life, and accelerate the construction of a global benchmark city for the digital economy." It is revealed that in 2023, Beijing will actively strive to launch a comprehensive trial of opening up the entire digital economy industry chain to the country.

Expert analysis suggests that Beijing is advancing the development of the digital economy in depth, which requires the entire digital economy industry chain, including infrastructure, supply and demand, to be placed on an open platform to promote the participation of relevant enterprises and capable institutions in the construction of Beijing's digital economy benchmark city, achieving the goal of trial and error. Once mature, it can be replicated nationwide, which will be conducive to playing the role of Beijing as a digital economy benchmark city.

Promote deep participation of all sectors in the construction of "benchmark cities"

How to build a benchmark city for the digital economy? The report mentions that focusing on cutting-edge technologies and future strategic needs, promoting the deep integration of the digital economy and the real economy, and building more advantageous digital industry clusters. Deeply promote the construction of new infrastructure, improve the infrastructure and support system of the digital economy, and comprehensively stimulate the potential of data resource elements.

The report also revealed that in 2023, Beijing will implement the Digital Economy Promotion Regulations, formulate a comprehensive supporting system construction plan for public data management, data openness, and data transaction management, and actively strive to carry out comprehensive pilot projects for the opening of the entire digital economy industry chain with the country.

Previously, Zhang Jinsong, Secretary of the Party Group and Director of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology, also mentioned at the opening ceremony of the 2022 Financial Street Forum and the "Global Development and Financial Cooperation" Forum that we should strengthen policy breakthroughs in key areas and actively strive to carry out comprehensive pilot projects for the opening of the entire digital economy industry chain with the country.

The Beijing Business Daily reporter noticed that according to public information, currently no other province or city has mentioned the "comprehensive pilot program for opening up the entire digital economy industry chain" except for Beijing.

Wang Peng, Associate Professor at Renmin University of China and Researcher at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, told Beijing Business Daily that there are a large number of digital economy enterprises in Beijing, and the overall level of digital economy industrialization is relatively high. Therefore, for Beijing, the construction of the digital economy is not simply about improving some infrastructure, but requires related industries to advance in depth. Vertical promotion requires placing the entire digital economy industry chain, including infrastructure, supply and demand, on an open platform. Digital construction is actually aimed at all enterprises and industries, and relevant enterprises and capable institutions can participate in a large number of key tasks and technological research and development in the construction of Beijing's digital economy benchmark city. This is the core purpose of opening up the entire digital economy industry chain.

"The opening up of the entire digital economy industry chain involves a wide range of aspects. Therefore, Beijing actively seeks to carry out comprehensive pilot projects for the opening up of the entire digital economy industry chain with the country, in order to facilitate better implementation of related projects, coordinate relevant resources, take the lead, and carry out nationwide replication. This is conducive to leveraging Beijing's role as a benchmark for the digital economy and achieving global and national leadership." said Wang Peng.

What will the opening up of the entire digital economy industry chain bring

On May 30, 2022, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology released the "Beijing Digital Economy Full Industry Chain Open Development Action Plan" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan"), proposing 6 aspects and 22 reform measures, striving to create a data-driven highland for the development of the digital economy full industry chain, and promoting the opening up of the digital economy full industry chain in the city. For the highly concerned aspect of data openness and sharing, this city will actively promote the data openness of public service operation units such as water supply, power supply, gas supply, and public transportation.

"The 'Plan' reflects multi-dimensional openness and strives to become a benchmark for reform and innovation in the digital economy field in Beijing. The relevant person in charge of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology stated that Beijing will benchmark against advanced international and domestic rules, drive reform and innovation through the opening of key links in the digital economy industry chain, focus on 'domestic oriented', and focus on responding to the national decision-making arrangements and key tasks during the 14th Five Year Plan period, striving to take the lead in Beijing."; At the same time, we strive to take the lead in achieving innovative results in areas such as cross-border data, while also taking into account external factors.

"The opening up of the entire industrial chain of the digital economy is also conducive to promoting the comprehensive digital and intelligent transformation of the entire economy and society. Through project and demand traction, it brings more orders to related enterprises, provides more opportunities, and allows for a deeper integration of digital technology with economic, social, and urban operations." Wang Peng said.

The plan also proposes measures to improve the supply capacity of digital technology, build a digital technology innovation ecosystem, and focus on breakthroughs in key core technologies such as high-end chips, artificial intelligence, key software, and blockchain. It also plans to advance the layout of future cutting-edge technologies such as 6G, future networks, neuromorphic intelligence, and quantum computing, support the expansion and application of advanced computing power platforms for blockchain and public computing power platforms for artificial intelligence, attract domestic and foreign open-source projects and institutions to land in Beijing, and form a diversified digital technology innovation ecosystem with public platforms, underlying technologies, and leading enterprises as the core.

Yuan Shuai, an expert in the field of digitalization and executive vice president of the Agricultural, Cultural and Tourism Industry Revitalization Research Institute, believes that promoting the development of the entire industry chain of the digital economy and empowering the physical industry with digital technology will provide new impetus for the high-quality development of China's economy. The importance of the digital economy in China's macroeconomy will be further strengthened. The digital economy industry chain is vast, and in the future, related industries such as artificial intelligence, digital renminbi, cloud computing, commercial applications of 5G, and the metaverse will receive more attention.

Data security compliance is the core foundation of a "benchmark city"

In addition, the deepening of the digital economy industry also relies on the circulation of data elements. The report also mentioned that we will accelerate the formation of an open circulation platform for data elements driven by three rounds: data zones, big data exchanges, and cross-border data. We will promote the introduction of Chang'an Chain into the data zones of big data platforms to achieve "chain control of data" and continuously improve the functions of international big data exchanges. Increase government data openness and sharing efforts.

In 2021, the Beijing International Big Data Exchange was established. This means that data can also be classified, priced, and traded like regular commodities. As a landmark institution that has ushered in the era of National Data Exchange 2.0, Beishu is committed to building five innovative data trading systems, including new technologies, new models, new rules, new risk control, and new ecology, in order to become a leading data trading infrastructure in China and an important cross-border data flow hub internationally.

Chang'an Chain is China's first independently controllable blockchain software and hardware technology system. Since its release in early 2021, it has been applied in more than 300 important industries and key areas of the national economy, including national tax supervision, trusted digital identity system, government services, and supply chain finance. A number of national digital economy infrastructure network nodes have been completed, and the cross industry and cross regional secure and trustworthy digital infrastructure - the Long Security Chain Collaboration Network - has taken on a considerable scale.

"The market-oriented reform of data elements first requires further development under the premise of security and controllability, to maximize the value of data elements. Through compliant trading on the big data exchange, the legitimate rights and interests of all parties involved in the transaction can be better protected. Chang'an Chain also solves the problem of security, which is the infrastructure of the new generation of digital economy. At the same time, the Beijing International Big Data Exchange can promote the open sharing and application of public data through mechanism and system innovation, and promote the generation of greater value from data." said Wang Peng.

Wang Peng believes that safer and more reliable data has laid the core foundation for the future development of Beijing's digital economy benchmark city, which is conducive to relevant industries conducting transactions in a compliant environment and maximizing the utility of data. It is of great significance for technology development, application research and development, urban operation, industrial development, government governance, public services, and so on.

In addition, in 2023, Beijing will also build more than 10000 5G base stations, promote the full coverage of 5G from base stations to applications, and systematically promote the construction of new infrastructure such as the new generation digital trunking private network, high reliability and low latency Internet of Vehicles, industrial Internet, satellite Internet, and edge computing system. Promote the research and development of 6G technology.

Beijing Business Daily reporter Fang Binnan and Yuan Zerui