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We know that the digital upgrading of small and medium-sized enterprises is of great significance to the economic and social transformation. What are the difficulties and keys to such digital upgrading? How will the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology push forward such upgrading? In addition, I would like to ask the NDRC to introduce what innovative measures have been carried out to promote the development of digital economy since the epidemic outbreak? What are the main directions in promoting the digital economy development in the next step? Thank you.
Xie Shaofeng:
Thank you for your question. At present, digitalization provides an important driving force for the high-quality development of economy. I should say there are bright prospects to empower SMEs with digitalization and accelerate their recovery and transformation and growth. The difficulties and keys of digital transformation and upgrading of SMEs are mainly reflected in the following aspects:
First, the digitalization and networking of the underlying equipment of some small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises have not been fully popularized, and the foundation for implementing digital transformation is relatively weak. Second, the degree of digitalization in the R&D and production lags behind that in the management. Third, the cost of digitalization is still relatively high for some micro and small enterprises. Fourth, there is a shortage of talents at this disposal. There is a lack of compound talents who understand both industry and digital technology. Therefore, professional digital talents with strong learning ability and knowledge in many fields are urgently needed to provide services for the transformation of SMEs.
Facing these difficulties, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology vigorously promotes the SMEs to seek access to cloud computing and various platforms, which are helping to promote digital transformation of SMEs, and also promotes the financing and development of large, medium and small-sized enterprises. It has issued a special action plan for digital empowerment of small and medium-sized enterprises. It focuses on promoting the digital transformation of SMEs in four ways. First, widely soliciting and promoting a number of digital service providers and excellent digital products and services for SMEs. Second, summarizing and introducing a number of cases of digital enabling benchmarking SMEs to promote more SMEs to accelerate the transformation to digitalization, networking and intelligence. The third is to organize a series of activities, such as "a trip of innovation in China" or a high-end forum on digital empowerment of SMEs that promotes the docking of supply and demand, and the application of various digital products. The fourth is to carry out a number of digital, network and intelligent technical training by using online platforms such as " micro classes for enterprises."
By far, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has printed and distributed two issues of recommended catalogue of digital enabling service products and activities for SMEs through local governments, industry associations, relevant units and self-recommended enterprises, and has introduced 223 service providers and 254 service products and activities, encouraging local departments supervising SMEs and relevant units to promote the independent selection, docking and use. The ministry has also guided small excellent enterprises and SMEs to become the first to establish a benchmark through digital empowerment. At the same time, in accordance with the idea of "enterprises spend a little more, service providers earn a little less, and the government gives a certain amount of subsidy," we encourage local governments to increase financial support for the digital transformation of SMEs so as to promote such companions to accelerate their digital transformation and achieve high-quality development. Thank you.
Shen Zhulin:
I'll answer the second half of your question first. As for the work we undertook during the epidemic, I have already answered that aspect just now. As the next step, we will seize opportunities provided by the development of the digital economy, maintaining the current good momentum of the development of the digital economy, and further stimulate its potential, further demonstrating its driving forces for industrial development and social transformation. Next, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) will follow the decisions and deployments of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, and further implement relevant arrangements together with other government departments. Our work will focus on the following five aspects.
First, it is necessary to accelerate the establishment of the data factor market. This is a new task set out at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee, which is also a fundamental system for the development of the digital economy. We will work with relevant departments to improve standards, regulations and systems on data rights confirmation, sharing, circulation, trading, income distribution, and so on. All these are expected to effectively promote and give full play to data circulation.
Second is to strongly boost construction of the innovative development pilot zones of digital economy. During the World Internet Conference (WIC) last year, the NDRC and the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) jointly launched the first batch of digital economy pilot zones, and Fujian province is a focus of such activity. Just now, Governor Zhao have a comprehensive introduction on Fujian's efforts in promoting its development. In this and the following years, we will encourage more pilot zones to innovate boldly on areas such as digital transformation, cultivation of digital new industrial forms, elements circulation, and construction of digital infrastructure. By doing so, we hope to accumulate and sum up more experience that can be copied and spread, so as to advance digital transformation in more regions.
Third, there is a need to improve the digital infrastructure, which is a topic we all concerned about. We will focus on accelerating the building of integrated big data centers around the country, and speeding up the layout of national nodes and key regional clusters of the integrated big data center. All these developments should help improve the utilization efficiency of the data center, deepen data innovation and application, and support digital transformation in all industries and fields.
Fourth is to boost digital industrialization and industrial digitization. I have already introduced this part in answering previous questions. We have launched the SMEs partnership initiative of digital transformation and the initiative of cloud services and big data application as well as making enterprises smarter, and have carried out relevant measures about cultivation of new industrial forms and modes. Next, we will continue to deepen our work. Taking the partnership initiative as an example, we will launch the second batch, and maybe even to a third batch, in order to implement both digital industrialization and industrial digitization pragmatically.
Fifth is to speed up the formulation of the digital economy plan during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), which will be the first special plan on digital economy in China's history. In the plan, we will define the main goals and tasks for the development of digital economy during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, and deploy major constructions, projects and reform measures. Thank you.
