A staff member looks at a robot at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference venue in Shanghai. [Photo/Agencies]
China’s emphasis on facilitating the development of the digital economy and platform enterprises and accelerating the digitization of industries will help promote deep integration of the digital and real economies and provide strong impetus for the country’s economic recovery, said national policy advisers and the industry experts.
Her comments came as this year’s government work report found that China will strive to better develop the digital economy, strengthen regular supervision and support the growth of the platform economy.
The country will accelerate the digitization of traditional industries and small and medium-sized enterprises to make them more high-quality, smarter and greener, the report said.
“The deep integration of digital and real economies helps strengthen the resilience and vitality of the economy and promote the country’s high-quality development,” said Cao Peng, a member of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Committee and chairman of the technology board of the e-commerce platform JD.
In his proposal for this year’s two sessions, Cao called for a greater push to support the development of new-type enterprises featuring cutting-edge digital technologies and innovative business models, and to strengthen the digital transformation of traditional industries.
Stressing the importance of maintaining the stability and security of industrial and supply chains, he said the country should accelerate the construction of intelligent supply chain systems, encourage innovation in supply chain technologies, and promote technology service companies with global competitiveness.
More efforts should be made to promote the digital transformation of SMEs, which play a prominent role in promoting technological innovation, said Wang Jian, a member of the 14th CPPCC National Committee.
Wang, who is also chairman of the technology steering committee of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, suggested the country should step up support for SMEs in terms of politics, finance and services and streamline its business environment.
He said that as cloud computing serves as the foundation of the digital economy, computing power is expected to become a core competency of businesses in the future.
Alibaba is stepping up efforts to use digital technologies to help SMEs and accelerate industrial transformation to better empower the real economy. The cloud computing sector, which is considered to be a key factor in the digitization of the industry, is playing an increasingly important role in the overall business landscape of the company.
The scale of China’s digital economy reached 45.5 trillion (US$6.6 trillion) in 2021, ranking second in the world and accounting for 39.8 percent of the country’s GDP, according to a report by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology published white paper.
Zhou Hongyi, a member of the 14th CPPCC National Committee and founder of cybersecurity company 360 Security Group, stressed the importance of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in stabilizing economic growth, expanding employment and promoting technological innovation.
However, they face mounting pressures and challenges from lack of capital, talent and technology, Zhou said.
Innovative digital technologies such as big data, cloud computing and artificial intelligence are finding a wide range of applications in various industries and integrating with the real economy, said Long Haibo, senior researcher at the State Council Development Research Center, China’s cabinet.
