As noted in the report to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), China’s economy has shifted from a phase of high-speed growth to a stage of high-quality development and is now facing a critical period of transforming development mode, optimizing economic structure and shifting growth momentum.
In the process of the transformation from old to new driving forces, a number of emerging industries, such as the digital economy, high-end equipment manufacturing, bio-pharmaceuticals, and cultural and creative industries, are accelerating growth. Development of the digital economy has been particularly rapid, and it has become a new driving force for China’s economic development in the new era and a new business card for foreign contacts.
According to the definition agreed upon at the G20 Hangzhou Summit, the digital economy refers to a broad range of economic activities that use digitized information and knowledge as the key factor of production, modern information networks as an important activity space, and information and communication technology (ICT) as an important driver of productivity growth and economic structural optimization.
The digital economy continues to expand, driven by new generations of information technologies such as cloud computing, Internet of Things and artificial intelligence (AI), emerging from a narrow sense of digital industrialization to the more extensive digitization of industries.
In addition to traditional telecommunications and electronic product manufacturing, software services, and the internet, the digital economy has penetrated into many non-information industries, playing an increasingly important role in sectors such as intelligent manufacturing, modern agriculture and the “Internet Plus.”
The digital economy is a technology- and talent-intensive sector with strong innovation dynamism and significant improvement in total factor productivity.
After an economic downturn, the digital economy is often a key driver for recovery. For example, statistics from the 2017 PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty) released by the World Intellectual Property Organization show that computing technology and digital communications ranked top two in all technological fields in terms of the number of patents applied, while digital economy-related companies occupied six seats in the top ten enterprises.
Amid the digital wave, all countries in the world have joined the digital revolution and are competing for a piece of the digital economy—the future industrial goldmine.
By 2015, 27 of 34 OECD (Orga-nization for Economic Cooperation and Development) member countries had formulated national strategies related to the digital economy.
Of the top 10 listed companies in the world in 2017, digital companies took seven seats, led by Apple, Google, and Microsoft.
According to Accenture’s calculations, the GDP share of the digital economy in most countries is expected to increase by three percentage points from 2015 to 2020, equivalent to a 12.5-percent increase in global economic output value.
China is also seizing the opportunity to develop the digital economy by enacting a series of guidelines including the Guidance on Actively Promoting the “Internet Plus” Initiative, Development Program for Intelligent Manufacturing (2016-2020) and New Generation of Artificial Intelligence Development Plan.
Statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology show that in 2017, China’s digital economy reached 27.2 trillion yuan, accounting for 32.9 percent of its GDP, and contributed 55 percent to its GDP growth.
A group of outstanding internet companies have emerged. Tencent and Alibaba rank among the top 10 listed companies in the world. Of the 164 unicorn companies announced by the Ministry of Science and Technology in 2017, 145 are digital economy-related companies, which captured nine of the top 10 spots.
Still, against the backdrop of the slowdown in the growth of the domestic market, digital economy-related companies have begun to explore overseas markets. The Digital Silk Road has become a highlight in the construction of the Belt and Road.
Chinese smartphone brands can be found across the world. Huawei has sold its products in 170 countries and regions around the world. Xiaomi has made impressive progress in the Indian market. Tecno cell phones have become popular in Africa.
Although China has become a big digital economy, it is yet to be a digital economic power, and still lags behind the United States, the world leader in this regard.
In the core technologies of the digital economy represented by integrated circuits and infrastructure software, China still depends on others. Independent innovation in China emphasizes innovation modes. The ZTE incident that emerged in April served as a wakeup call.
The intellectually intensive feature of the digital economy also makes it highly demanding in the industrial layout. Related companies are highly concentrated in four large cities in China: Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Shenzhen. Development of central and western regions is relatively lacking and primarily distributed at the low end of the value chain.
As a whole, the digital economy has become a new driver of China’s economic growth in the new era and will do much to build a modern economic system. The author is vice president and professor of the School of Economics at Peking University and head of the Beijing Philosophy and Social Science Research Center for China’s Urban Economy.