Long-term perspective needed to plan digital economy growth

Vice-Premier Liu He recently stressed State support for the sustainable and healthy development of the platform economy and the private economy, and for listing digital enterprises in the capital market at home and abroad.

Globally, the digital economy is seeing intelligence-oriented quantization, cross-border integration, deep penetration and exponential changes. It has become a key force behind China implementing major national strategies, but in the absence of corresponding laws and regulations and policies encouraging innovation, China's digital economy has attached more importance to quantitative rather than qualitative growth.

Countries around the world have recognized the development of the digital economy as a new source of competitive advantage. Expectedly, the digital economy is emerging as the main arena of international competition. China, too, should adapt to the changes from a long-term perspective.

Unlike the industrial and agricultural economies, the digital economy is less limited by land and labor. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the digital economy has increasingly impacted traditional industries, promoting the restructuring of their industrial competition pattern. In order to adapt to the new trend of digitization, and customization of the global value chain of multinational enterprises, China's digital economy should adhere to a market-oriented approach and promote intensive allocation of factors and the allocation of resources through technological innovation.

At the moment, China's digital economy relies too much on the source code and the existing mathematical model. To reach the commanding heights of the global digital economy, China must grasp core digital technologies as soon as possible. It should take the initiative to develop the digital economy, start from basic research to consolidate the underlying research of the digital economy, and solve the original innovation problem that "seizes China by the neck", to realize the coordinated optimization and the development of its digital economy.

Given that the massive data, vast market space and rich application scenarios of China's digital economy all need promotion of technology, it is important for China to accelerate the transformation and application of digital technology and promote the innovation of production mode, organization form and business paradigm of its real economy.

China should promote in-depth integration of digital enterprises represented by the internet with agriculture, medical care, tourism, transportation and other industries, and accelerate the extension of digital enterprises from consumption to production.