WDO seeks to safely unlock value of data

Editor's note: The World Data Organization was established this week in Beijing. Yang Jie, secretary-general of the organization, spoke to Xinhua News Agency about the role it will play and the key tasks it will take up. Below are excerpts of the interview. The views don't necessarily represent those of China Daily.

Countries need to unlock the potential of data to achieve higher growth. To do this, all countries need to cooperate in a more open manner. Global data cooperation faces three prominent challenges.

The first challenge is the imbalance in development capacity. Wide gaps persist among countries and regions in terms of access to data resources, infrastructure, technology, institutional frameworks and talent. Countries of the Global South face a new development divide in the digital era.

The second challenge is the fragmentation of rules and standards. Significant differences exist in regulations on data security, personal information protection, cross-border data flows and algorithm governance. This results in inadequate interoperability and high compliance costs.

The third challenge is the insufficient coordination among industries, which leads to inconsistency in data quality, mismatches between supply and demand, fragmented applications and flawed cooperation mechanisms. It also prevents the full release of the value of data and restricts the overall efficiency of the digital economy.

Against this backdrop, the international community urgently needs an open, inclusive, professional and neutral cooperation platform that addresses the practical issues. This is precisely why the WDO has been established. The purpose of the organization is to bridge the data divide, unlock the value of data and boost the digital economy.

Its core mission is to promote the development and governance of data globally, facilitate the exchange and use of data in compliance with rules, as well as ensuring safety and trustworthiness.

The organization will help reduce frictions arising in cooperation due to fragmented rules, incompatible standards and low interoperability, and enhance policy predictability for enterprises engaging in data cooperation and cross-border business.

It will help integrate efforts to study rules, coordinate different technologies, build critical infrastructure, offer compliance support and provide talent training, thus enabling efficient conversion of data into real productive forces.

The WDO will also facilitate coordination within the global digital industry and the development of replicable solutions for using data and digital technology in manufacturing, agriculture, healthcare, energy and other key sectors.

Most international data governance mechanisms focus on a single, specific part of the digital economy, and place greater emphasis on the formulation of principles, standards and rules. The WDO will complement these mechanisms by focusing on the whole life cycle of data and the entire process of data cooperation.

The WDO stands ready to cooperate with other international organizations so that together they propel global data cooperation toward aligning standards, effectively using data and digital technology in various industries and achieving inclusive development.

In the initial stage, the organization will focus on three key tasks. The first is the establishment of a mechanism to collect and respond to its members' demands on a regular basis, so as to identify and prioritize the most pressing practical issues for the development of the digital sector.

The second task is speeding up efforts to provide public goods, such as research reports, compliance guidelines and standard recommendations to address the issue of fragmented rules and high compliance costs.

The third is translating successful experiences in key sectors, such as agriculture, energy, healthcare and education, into widely applicable solutions.