The Paper:

The fifth plenary session of the 19th CPC central committee has put forward the concept of digital development. Shanghai released related guidelines for this at the end of last year. What are Shanghai's advantages and challenges in its progress toward digital transformation? What major policies will be adopted next? Thank you.

Gong Zheng:

The digital transformation of the city is a major strategy in Shanghai's future development. It requires overall transformation, all-round empowerment, and revolutionary remodeling.

Shanghai's advantages in this regard are mainly shown in the following five aspects:

First, Shanghai has the most advanced information infrastructure in China. The city has become the first city in the country to have access to 5G and dual gigabit fixed broadband. We won China's first world smart city award last year.

Second, Shanghai has a huge amount of valuable data. With a permanent population of nearly 25 million and an actual population exceeding 30 million, Shanghai, as the biggest city by GDP in China, has abundant and high-quality data stores.

Third, Shanghai has rich application scenarios, including across communities, enterprises, hospitals, schools, transport, scenic spots, buildings, stadiums, and subways. Shanghai's metro network has reached more than 770 kilometers, the longest in the world. 61 more kilometers will be added this year, bringing the total length to more than 800 kilometers next year. More than 10 million people take the subway every day. The city also has the largest number of tall buildings in the world, with a variety of application scenarios. It has the largest number of elevators, numbering 260,000. All of these application scenarios are available and important for digital transformation.

Fourth, we have a solid foundation in science, technology, and industry. We have a great number of large scientific facilities—the most in the country—as well as high-level scientific research institutions, which renders us important in the fields of integrated circuits, AI, brain-intelligence projects, and biomedicine.

Fifth, we have a well-structured talent pool. Personnel is key to digital transformation. In terms of the number of professionals, Shanghai now accounts for more than 50% of the country's total in 5G research and development, 40% in integrated circuit and chip industries, one-third in AI, and over 20% in innovative drug development. These five strengths and foundations are relatively solid.

As for the challenges you asked, we are now mainly facing two problems. First, we still have some obvious weaknesses. At present, digital transformation focuses more on project construction rather than on systematic business coordination. Different lines of business have their own systems to promote the application of information technology, leading to information silos, as data is still relatively separate and isolated. Various lines and levels of business lack collaboration and coordination and there is still a long way to go for joint development and sharing of data and information. In addition, problems also exist regarding data security and the digital divide. There are many difficulties in bridging the digital gap, especially for the elderly. Second, external competition is becoming increasingly fierce. Currently, major developed countries and international metropolises in the world are working energetically toward digital transformation. We will fall behind if no progress is made or if progress is not made fast enough. Therefore, to build an international digital capital with global influence, we must strive to seize an advantageous position and take the initiative.

Next, we will focus on digital transformation and carry out large-scale investigations and research to establish and improve the policy system of "1+3+X" as soon as possible. You mentioned just now that we issued the Opinions on Comprehensively Promoting the Urban Digital Transformation of Shanghai at the end of last year. This document constitutes the "1" which indicates the overall goal of developing Shanghai into an international digital capital with global influence. "3" refers to the digitization of the economy, people's lives, and governance, and the introduction of three three-year action plans for them, respectively.

Regarding the digitization of the economy, we will focus on promoting high-quality economic development and strive to digitize various industries. Traditional industries should achieve transformation, upgrading, and structural adjustment through digitization. Data should be industrialized and enhanced to foster new technologies, new industries, and new forms and models of business.

As for the digitization of people's lives, we will mainly concentrate on meeting the urgent needs of our citizens and improving the quality of their lives, creating a new picture of digital life that is ubiquitous and of high quality with universal benefits. At the same time, we will step up efforts to improve the level of barrier-free intelligent technology services. For example, many senior citizens don't know how to find their health code or even use a smartphone. In the future, it will be that they can show their data simply by scanning their ID cards without the need for smartphones. ID card scanning, and even facial recognition, will be enough for the elderly to go to the places where the health code is needed. We need to bridge the digital divide so that the elderly won't be digitally marginalized.

The focus of governance digitization is to provide government services via a single platform and integrate the city's operations into a single network. The quality and efficiency of the platform and network should continue to be improved.

"X," meanwhile, refers to formulating action plans for the digital transformation of several industries. We will work to complete the overall policy system starting this year. In this process, we will study and introduce targeted policies to address the frequent, urgent, and acute problems as well as some long-term and institutional bottlenecks in various sectors and industries. That's all for my answer.

Finally, the three of us would like to thank the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee for providing us with such a good platform to brief you on various aspects of Shanghai's economic and social development and our celebrations of the centenary of the CPC's founding. Once again, we'd like to thank friends from the media for your care for, support in, and coverage of Shanghai.

You may still have a lot of questions today, but time is limited. General Secretary Xi Jinping points out that Shanghai is an important window through which the world can observe China. He also says that Shanghai is a window showcasing China's development over the past 100 years. I'd like to take this opportunity to invite you to visit Shanghai more often; to get a deep understanding of Shanghai's practices in reform, opening-up, and innovation; to experience its prosperity on both banks of the Huangpu River; and to appreciate the rich fruits of a "Better City, Better Life." Welcome to Shanghai. Thank you.

Chen Wenjun:

Thank you all, both speakers and friends from the media. This is the end of today's press conference. Goodbye!

Translated and edited by Zhang Rui, Chen Xia, Liu Jianing, Zhang Liying, Liu Sitong, Fan Junmei, Duan Yaying, Liu Qiang, Xu Xiaoxuan, Li Huiru, Wang Qian, Wang Yiming, Wang Wei, Guo Yiming, Yuan Fang, Zhang Tingting, Lin Liyao, Zhang Junmian, David Ball, Jay Birbeck, and Tom Arnstein. In case of any discrepancy between the English and Chinese texts, the Chinese version is deemed to prevail.