Reforms to help build 'Digital China'

China will take solid steps to bolster reforms related to the market-oriented allocation of data elements and speed up the construction of digital infrastructure, including industrial internet and computing power networks, as part of its broader push to advance the building of a "Digital China", the country's top data governance regulator said on Friday.

Liu Liehong, head of the National Data Administration, said more efforts should be made to establish and improve a data property rights system, formulate policies to promote the efficient circulation and trading of data in a compliant manner, and establish a revenue distribution system and a security governance system for data.

Liu said China will accelerate the research of data security technologies, bolster the digital, intelligent and green transformation of industries, strengthen international cooperation in the digital economy domain as well as continuously optimize the regulations concerning the cross-border data flow.

Liu made the remarks at a news conference for the seventh Digital China Summit, which is scheduled to be held in Fuzhou, Fujian province, from May 24 to 25.

He said the administration has unveiled a guideline to expand the application scenarios of data elements in more fields, foster new growth drivers and give birth to new industries and new business models, adding efforts will be further stepped up to press ahead with the utilization and development of data elements.

With the theme of unleashing the value of data elements and developing new quality productive forces, the summit will focus on giving full play to the multiplier effect of data, and building digital infrastructure and data resource systems.

China rolled out a plan for the overall layout of the country's digital development last year, vowing to make important progress in the construction of a Digital China by 2025.

The NDA, which was inaugurated in October 2023, is responsible for advancing the development of data-related fundamental institutions, coordinating the integration, sharing, development and application of data resources, and pushing forward the planning and building of a Digital China, which includes a digital economy and society.

Liu also urged efforts to accelerate the establishment of a national computing network and data circulation infrastructure.

Lin Wenbin, vice-governor of Fujian province, said digital technologies are finding a wide range of applications across various industries in the province.