Hong Kong Economic Herald:
China's digital economy has flourished in recent years, becoming a new driver for economic growth. My question is, what steps have the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology taken to boost the digital economy? Thank you.
Wang Zhijun:
I would like to invite Mr. Lu Shan to field this question.
Lu Shan:
Thank you for your question. I will give some figures to show how China's digital economy has grown during the 13th Five-Year Plan period. During the period, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has steadily advanced the digital economy in accordance with the plans of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council. Just as Mr. Wang and Mr. Wen has said, China's digital economy expanded from 11 trillion yuan at the beginning of the period to 35.8 trillion yuan in 2019, that is, 36.2% of China's GDP. Good results have been achieved, which can be seen through the "industrial transformation of digital technologies" and the "digital transformation of industries," as I will detail next.
First, the industrial transformation of digital technologies. For this, I'd like to use the example of internet infrastructure, which is a major area of industrialization. During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, we have built the world's biggest fiber-optic and 4G network, and are in the process of deploying the 5G network. Hardware and software are also important areas that have undergone industrialization. As you can see, during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, besides traditional laptops, desktops, and servers, we also saw a growing number of smartphone apps coming into use, including the very voice recorders that you are using at this press conference that can not only recognize speech but also connect to the internet. The software industry has made a huge contribution to the digital economy during the 13th Five-Year Plan period. In 2019, it registered another rapid annual growth of 15.4% to reach a revenue of 7.2 trillion yuan. In addition, we have seen a large number of enterprises coming forth and providing solutions related to the digital economy. We also successfully pushed for the building of eight national comprehensive experimental zones for big data, 11 national demonstration centers for the new industrialization of big data, and 13 software cities, which now serve as important bases for China's software industry and the digital economy.
Second, the digital transformation of industries. E-commerce and mobile payment platforms have boomed. Manufacturing and the industrial sector as a whole have also made good progress. For example, we have built over 70 influential industrial internet platforms, which connect to 40 million sets of industrial equipment. The number of industrial apps has exceeded 250,000. These are all typical examples of the digital transformation of industries. We have selected over 400 pilot and demonstration programs for digital transformation in the fields of industry, government service, and livelihood initiatives.
To boost the digital economy, we have also made efforts in the following two aspects. One was to create a more favorable environment for development. During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, we adopted the Big Data Industry Development Plan (2016-2020) and the Guidelines on Industrial Big Data Development. We also set up software schools with different focuses to develop new engineering disciplines and train digital economy talents. We also gave guidance to the release of 24 big data-related national standards and held exhibitions. Second, we expanded openness and international cooperation. This was achieved through an active emphasis on digital economy cooperation to strengthen strategic mutual trust and deepen pragmatic cooperation through the G20 and BRICS, as well as China-Europe, China-ASEAN, and China-Russia relationships, and other multilateral and bilateral mechanisms.
During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the ministry will continue to accelerate high-quality development of the digital economy, promote the industrial transformation of digital technologies and the digital transformation of industries, improve the development environment, and seek higher standards of openness and cooperation.Thank you.
