People's Post and Telecommunications News:

We have seen that the ICT sector achieved steady and rapid growth in 2022. What are the main achievements? What other work considerations are there for this year? Thank you.

Zhao Zhiguo:

Thank you for your question. In 2022, the MIIT conscientiously implemented the decisions and plans of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, made stability our top priority, and pursued progress while ensuring stability, promoting the high-quality development of the ICT sector to achieve new results with a strong sense of responsibility and mission.

The first achievement is that we have created new highlights, and the scale of the ICT industry has continued to grow. The annual telecommunications services revenue was 1.58 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8%, injecting impetus into economic growth empowerment and boosting market confidence. We continuously optimized the industry structure, with the revenue of emerging businesses such as internet data centers, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things increasing by 32.4% year on year, driving the growth of telecommunications services revenue by 5.1 percentage points and becoming an important growth pole of the telecommunications services. The effective investment was steadily expanded. The investment in telecommunications fixed assets for the year reached 419.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.3%, and the growth rate of investment remained stable. Consumption vitality was effectively stimulated, mobile internet traffic increased by 18.1% year on year, and national online retail sales reached 13.8 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4%, driving both the quantity and quality of information consumption to increase.

The second achievement is that we have consolidated the new base, and the infrastructure construction has achieved remarkable results. We worked in coordination to promote the "Double Gigabit" networks construction, and a total of 2.312 million 5G base stations have been built and the gigabit optical networks have been expanded to be able to cover more than 500 million households, realizing "every city is covered by the gigabit optical network" and "every county can access 5G services." We coordinated the layout of data and computing power facilities, with the total number of data center racks in use across the country now exceeding 6.5 million standard racks and the average annual growth rate of the total computing power exceeding 25% in the past five years. We continued to optimize internet network architecture, added five national-level internet backbone direct connection points, increased the interconnection bandwidth to 38T, built four new switching centers, and accelerated the formation of an all-round, multi-level, three-dimensional network interconnection architecture, with the network service performance reaching an internationally advanced level.

The third achievement is that we have opened up "a new track," and the process of industrial digitalization continues to accelerate. In terms of industries, the integration of information and communications applications has accelerated to expand and deepen in the fields of industry, medical care, education, and transportation. The number of virtual private networks in the 5G industry has exceeded 10,000, and the number of mobile Internet of Things connections accounts for 70% of the global total. The industrial internet has been fully integrated into 45 major categories of the national economy. In terms of individual users, the number of apps has exceeded 2.58 million, enriching various user needs in consumption, entertainment, social networking, travel, etc., and comprehensively improving quality of life, and promoting the formation of the world's largest and most active digital service market.

Going forward, the MIIT will thoroughly implement the spirit of the 20th CPC National Congress and the plans of the Central Economic Work Conference; ensure both development and security; focus on consolidating foundations, promoting applications, and ensuring security; and consolidate the leading position of the information and communications industry in a bid to serve the high-quality development of the digital economy.

The first is to build high-quality information infrastructure. We will accelerate the in-depth coverage of the "Double Gigabit" networks; implement gigabit city construction actions; build an integrated computing power infrastructure application system with cloud-edge-terminal collaboration and integration of computing, storage, and operation; launch the "Broadband Frontier" project for universal telecommunications services; and promote high-quality development of the mobile Internet of Things, smoothing the information artery.

The second is to cultivate high-level integrated innovative applications. We will vigorously promote the integrated application of new-generation ICT such as 5G and gigabit optical networks in information consumption, vertical industries, people's wellbeing, and digital government. We will also promote the large-scale application of the industrial internet so as to lead the high-end, intelligent, and green development of industries.

The third is to build a highly reliable network security line of defense. We will comprehensively promote the construction of basic telecommunications network security capabilities, deepen the construction of data security management systems and supervision practices in the field of industry and information technology, advance the development of network and data security industries, and improve the network security system based on the security of network facilities, focusing on data security and supported by the security industry.

Thank you.