Beijing Youth Daily:

As China accelerates its efforts to build a digital society, the issue of the digital divide has become increasingly severe for the elderly. The MIIT said that a special campaign will be launched to help the elderly better adapt to online applications. What is the current status? Thank you.

Yang Yuyan:

Thank you for your question. This January, the MIIT launched a campaign to make online applications more elderly-friendly and barrier-free. The deployment work was recently finished and the campaign has been put into practice.

Next, we will follow the schedule and arrangement and focus on the actual needs of the elderly people; organize relevant parties to speed up the elderly-friendly and barrier-free adaptation work for websites and mobile applications; and establish an evaluation system to test the efficiency. It is estimated that by the end of this year, the first batch of qualified, barrier-free websites and mobile applications will be selected and released to the public. Thank you.

Guangming Online:

The outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan mentions that China will speed up efforts to build its digital economy. What are the policy considerations behind developing the digital economy? Thank you.

Sun Wei:

Thank you for your question. I also want to thank our friends from the media for your long-term interest in and support for the development of the digital economy. General Secretary Xi Jinping has attached great importance to the development of the digital economy, proposing to build a digital economy with data as a key element, and promoting and integrating the digital and real economies.

In recent years, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council have carried out a series of strategic measures such as building China's cyberspace strength, developing mechanisms for big data, and advancing Internet Plus initiatives, which have laid a solid foundation for the development of the digital economy. The just-concluded fourth session of the 13th National People's Congress has reviewed and adopted the outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan. It proposes accelerating digital development to build a digital China, making deployments for the development of the digital economy in the new era. The NDRC will fully implement the arrangements made by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council and work with relevant parties to put into practice the outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan and speed up the development of the digital economy. Our efforts in this regard will be made in the following six aspects.

First, the top-level design of the digital economy will be further strengthened. We will formulate special 14th five-year plans for the digital economy, strengthen the innovation and application of key digital technologies, accelerate digital industrialization and industrial digitalization, improve the digital governance system, and upgrade digital services. We will drive overall reforms in the ways of work, life, and governance through digital transformation and promote high-quality development.

Second, the construction of new types of infrastructure will be actively promoted to consolidate the development foundation of the digital economy. We will devise and introduce the 14th five-year plans for new infrastructure construction, enhance overall planning and coordination, refine the policy environment, and increase support. We will speed up the establishment of a collaborative innovation system for national integrated big data centers and promote high-quality and green development of data centers and 5G.

Third, the cultivation of the data factor market will be accelerated. We will give play to the key role of factors of data production, activate the potential for data production, and further improve the data ecology. We will work out and release guiding documents to develop the data factor market and build and improve the systems, standards, and norms in this field, including in areas of property rights, transaction and circulation, cross-border transmission, and security protection of data resources.

Fourth, the deep integration of digital technology and the real economy will be further advanced. We will foster new strengths in the digital economy, build new drivers for its development, and generate new industries as well as new forms and models of business. We will continue to implement the "Digital Transformation Partnership Initiative" to facilitate the digital and intelligent upgrading of conventional enterprises.

Fifth, guidance for regional pilot and demonstration programs will be intensified. We will implement major regional strategies and steadily advance the development of pilot zones for the national digital economy's innovation and development. We will speed up efforts to guide pilot zones to conduct preliminary trials in light of local conditions and reduce systemic and institutional barriers for development to give full play to their driving and demonstrating roles.

Sixth, a standardized and orderly policy environment will be fostered. We will build a policy and regulatory system that is compatible with the development of the digital economy, attach equal importance to both development and regulation, support the innovative development of platform companies, and enhance their international competitiveness. We will tighten supervision over online platform economy in accordance with laws and regulations, and strengthen the building of dynamic and innovative institutions in order to vigorously support the development of the digital economy.

Thank you again for your question. The NDRC will hold a sub-forum on the digital economy at this Summit (the 4th Digital China Summit). We welcome your input and participation.