The recently released "Digital China Development Report (2023)" shows that the pace of market-oriented reform of data elements in China has further accelerated, the scale of the digital economy continues to grow, and the application scenarios of digital technology continue to expand. The construction of digital China continues to enable high-quality economic and social development, and becomes a strong engine to accelerate the construction of Chinese path to modernization. Online shopping of clothing, one click change in the virtual fitting room, and intuitively feel whether the matching is suitable; Go to popular restaurants, pick up your number and order online in advance, saving time and effort; Smart furniture and appliances with remote operation and voice control greatly enhance living comfort in home life; Opening navigation software when going out, route planning and arrival time are clear at a glance... The widespread application of digital technology is affecting daily life such as clothing, food, housing, and transportation, allowing more and more people to enjoy the digital dividend. Moreover, as a new type of production factor, data has rapidly integrated into various aspects such as production, distribution, circulation, consumption, and social service management, profoundly changing the way of production, lifestyle, and social governance. Recently, the National Data Administration officially released the "Digital China Development Report (2023)", which shows that the development of Digital China is showing a good trend and the empowerment effect is more prominent. Currently, what achievements have been made in the construction of Digital China, what characteristics have been presented, and what development directions are in the future? The reporter conducted an interview. More than 20 provinces have established specialized data trading institutions to accelerate the market-oriented reform of data elements. Since last year, the pace of market-oriented reform of data elements has further accelerated, and the institutional mechanisms for overall management and coordinated development have been further improved. Various regions and departments actively carry out exploration and practice of public data authorization operation, data resource registration, and enterprise data asset entry, accelerating the process of realizing the value of data elements. By the end of 2023, more than 20 provinces have established specialized data trading institutions. The number of data trading institutions in Guangdong, Shandong, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang ranks among the top in the country. Open sharing of public data is an important means to increase the supply of data elements. Since last year, China has made significant breakthroughs in the scale and scope of data openness, effectively stimulating the vitality of innovative applications of public data Hu Jianbo, Vice President of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, said. The data element market is becoming increasingly active. The data output is growing rapidly. In 2023, the total data production in China will reach 32.85ZB (one ZB is approximately equivalent to 10 trillion bytes), a year-on-year increase of 22.44%. As of the end of 2023, the total amount of data storage in China is 1.73ZB. In the data trading market, off-site data trading is dominant, and the scale of on-site data trading is showing a rapid growth trend. The data demand in finance, Internet, communication, manufacturing and other fields is large and the transaction volume is growing rapidly. The scale of data traffic continues to grow. In 2023, China's total mobile Internet access traffic will be 0.27ZB, with a year-on-year growth of 15.2%; The average monthly mobile Internet access traffic reached 16.85GB, up 10.9% year on year. "This year, the National Data Administration will successively launch system documents such as data property rights, data circulation, income distribution, security governance, public data development and utilization, enterprise data development and utilization, high-quality development of the digital economy, and guidelines for data infrastructure construction, increase policy supply, promote China's massive data advantages into new national competitive advantages, promote high-quality development, and help Chinese path to modernization." Director Liu Liehong of the National Data Administration stated. Accumulatively building 62 "lighthouse factories" is a strategic choice to seize the new opportunities of the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation in the development of the digital economy, with both quantity and quality improving. Since last year, the scale of China's digital economy has continued to grow. The added value of core industries in the digital economy is estimated to exceed 12 trillion yuan in 2023, accounting for about 10% of GDP. The foundation of the digital industry is constantly being consolidated, and the completeness and scale advantages of the digital industry system are becoming increasingly apparent. The revenue of emerging businesses represented by cloud computing, big data, and the Internet of Things has been increasing year by year. Cloud computing and big data business revenue increased by 37.5% compared to the previous year, while IoT business revenue increased by 20.3% compared to the previous year, far higher than the growth rate of telecommunications business revenue during the same period; The proportion of emerging business revenue to total telecommunications revenue has significantly increased, rising from 10.5% in 2019 to 21.2% in 2023. Deepening the integration of data and reality. The digital transformation of the manufacturing industry continues to deepen, and the pace of digital transformation for small and medium-sized enterprises is accelerating. In 2023, the CNC rate of key processes and the popularization rate of digital R&D design tools in China will reach 62.2% and 79.6% respectively, an increase of 12.1 and 9.4 percentage points compared to 2019. A total of 62 "lighthouse factories" have been built, accounting for 40% of the global total. 11 new factories were added throughout the year, accounting for 52.4% of the global total. The new momentum of digital consumption is even stronger. China has been the world's largest online retail market for 11 consecutive years. The number of internet users has been ranked first in the world for several consecutive years, reaching 1.092 billion by the end of 2023. The huge number of internet users has established a super large market advantage. In 2023, the e-commerce transaction volume was 46827.3 billion yuan, an increase of 9.4% over the previous year; The online retail sales amounted to 15.42 trillion yuan, with a cumulative growth of 45.1% in the past five years. Among them, the proportion of online retail sales of physical goods reached 27.6%, setting a new historical high. The growth rate of investment and financing in the digital economy continues to lead other fields. High tech industry investment continues to improve. In 2023, investment in high-tech manufacturing and high-tech service industries will increase by 9.9% and 11.4% respectively. In the high-tech manufacturing industry, the investment in computer, communication and other electronic equipment manufacturing increased by 9.3% year on year, 6.3 percentage points higher than the total fixed assets investment. Thanks to the continuous improvement of digital infrastructure and data infrastructure systems, China's digital economy has made significant progress in both technological innovation and model innovation. The role of the platform economy continues to strengthen, and various industries continue to deepen their digital transformation. The scale of the digital economy is showing a steady growth trend Ouyang Rihui, vice president of the China Internet Economics Research Institute of the Central University of Finance and Economics, said. More than 90% of government services can be provided online, and the application scenarios of digital technology are constantly expanding. Digital technology is deeply integrated into various fields and the entire process of economic, political, cultural, social, and ecological civilization construction. Since last year, the construction of digital China has continued to enable high-quality economic and social development and become a strong engine to accelerate the construction of Chinese path to modernization. The Digital Government Online Service Index continues to maintain a leading global level, with over 90% of government services nationwide being available online. Over 5 million government service items and more than 10000 high-frequency items have been standardized for local departments, and 92.5% of provincial-level administrative licensing items have been accepted online and 'run at most once' has been promoted. "Since last year, data sharing between government and enterprises has accelerated. Enterprises represented by the Internet platform have established a data sharing mechanism with the government to provide regular data such as business, consumption and governance that do not involve user privacy, and help improve the level of government digital governance." Hu Jianbo stated. Expanding and improving the supply of digital cultural content. The digital collection of cultural resources is accelerating. As of the end of 2023, out of the 1.86 million cultural relics preserved by the Palace Museum, 900000 pieces (sets) have been digitally collected, accounting for about 48%. The National Museum has approximately 1.43 million collections, of which 700000 have been digitized, accounting for about 49%. Balanced development of digital education. By October 2023, the Internet access rate of schools at all levels and types will reach 100%, more than 3/4 of the schools will have wireless network coverage, and 99.5% of the schools will have multimedia classrooms; As of the end of 2023, the National Smart Education Platform has gathered 88000 primary and secondary school resources, a year-on-year increase of double; There are over 10000 high-quality online courses in vocational education, a year-on-year increase of nearly 10 times. The foundation for the development of digital ecological civilization is constantly being consolidated. Building a comprehensive ecological environment management platform, integrating multi-source data such as ecological environment, meteorology, and water conservancy, forming 9 types of data resources including environmental quality, pollution sources, and natural ecology, creating an ecological environment big data system, and completing more than 40 specialized applications such as atmosphere, administrative licensing, soil, and law enforcement. Looking ahead to the future, the construction of a digital China will resonate and collaborate with China's accelerated development of new quality productive forces, enhancing the vitality and resilience of the Chinese economy Ouyang Rihui believes that it is necessary to further open up the main artery of digital infrastructure, smooth the circulation of data resources, promote the compliant and efficient circulation and use of data, empower the real economy as the main line, and promote the sharing of the dividends of digital economic development by all people. (New Society)