21st Century Business Herald:

As the digital economy has achieved robust development, especially with the emergence of large scale models, computing power, as a fundamental cornerstone, has received wide attention from all walks of life as a basic support. I would like to ask, how is the development of the computing power industry of China? Recently, the MIIT has jointly launched the Action Plan for High-quality Development of Computing Power Infrastructure with multiple departments. I would like to ask, what concrete measures will be taken to ensure the implementation of the plan? Thank you.

Zhao Zhiguo:

Thank you for your questions. Recently, the action plan jointly issued by the MIIT and relevant departments has received wide attention. The MIIT has actively organized relevant parties to ensure the effective implementation of the plan. As a new type of key productive force, computing power has become a key driver affecting the development of the national digital economy. The ministry has thoroughly implemented the decisions and deployments made by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, expedited the infrastructure construction of computing power, facilitated the transition and upgrading of industries, built a modernized infrastructure system, and achieved positive results. 

First, we have strengthened our top-level design. We introduced an action plan to promote the high-quality development of computing power infrastructure. In light of the latest situation of computing power development, we have created a rational layout of national computing infrastructure, featuring the orientation of improving resource utilization, promoted the optimization of computing structure with intelligent computing power as the focus, facilitated the coordinated development of computing, network, storage and application with integrated development as the main line, and strengthened the collaboration between departments and industries to encourage major fields such as industry, finance, medical care, education, and energy to create a number of new computing business, new models, and new forms of business.

Second, we have consistently enhanced the capability of basic infrastructure of computing power. The data centers across China now house over 7.6 million standard racks, with a total computing power capacity of 197 EFLOPS. The computing power structure has been continuously optimized, and the scale of intelligent computing power has increased by 45% year on year. We have also accelerated the construction of the national computing hub, adding about 130 new trunk optical cables to enhance the layout of data center clusters. In addition, high-speed, long-distance transmission technology has effectively improved the quality of cross-regional data transmission. The artificial intelligence reasoning and training chips have accelerated the iterative optimization process, greatly improving their performance. 

Third, we have further enhanced the role of computing power in empowering various sectors. The application of computing services has expanded from the internet field to equipment manufacturing, transportation, and other industries, gradually forming a dual-wheel drive in ToC and ToB markets. The featured application of computing power has achieved initial results. Real-time computing services such as intelligent driving, financial technology, and virtual reality are now widely used, and some regions have developed a number of computing applications with local characteristics centering around cloud services, animation rendering, and so on.

Next, focusing on 25 tasks from six aspects according to the action plan, we will carry out our work on advancing the development of computing power in the following three aspects. Firstly, we will work to ensure the implementation of the action plan, strengthen monitoring of indicators such as utilization rate of data centers, guide the construction of computing power infrastructure in an orderly manner, and build a gradient architecture for computing power infrastructure systems. With the support of relevant infrastructures, such as national new-type internet exchange centers and internet backbone access points, we will promote connectivity of computing power among multiple parties. Secondly, we will organize an open competition mechanism to select the best candidates to lead research on computing power infrastructure, speed up our efforts to make breakthroughs in signature technology products and plans, and accelerate the application of new technologies and products. We will work with all parties to actively advance the development of an AI computing architecture and software ecosystem. Thirdly, in response to market demand, led by application scenarios, and taking the application innovation contest as a driving force, we will advance the integrated development of computing power and traditional industries, enhance the implementation of computing power applications with novel models and distinct features, and give full play to the role of computing power in driving the growth of the digital economy. Thank you.