Nanfang Daily, Nanfang Plus:

The third plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Committee has made plans for further deepening reform comprehensively to advance Chinese modernization. What role will data play in this? How will the NDA advance the reform related to the market-oriented allocation of data elements and effectively unleash the vitality of data? Thank you.

Liu Liehong:

Thank you for your questions. I will answer this one. The third plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Committee has made plans for accelerating the construction of the system and mechanism for digital economy and improving rules and institutions for the data market, pointing out the direction for advancing further reforms in the data field.

China is the first country in the world to consider data as a factor of production. Since the establishment of the NDA, we have deeply felt that data, as a new factor of production, has huge potential value and is constantly changing and evolving. Advancing reform related to the market-based allocation of data elements and promoting their smooth flow and efficient allocation are conducive to giving better play to the role of data, as a new type of production factor, in optimizing the combination of other production factors and achieving innovative allocation of production factors, creating new industries, business models and growth drivers, and promoting the cultivation and development of new quality productive forces. They are conducive to promoting the development of data-based sci-tech innovation capacity and enhancing the new competitive edge in the digital age, by leveraging the strengths of China's enormous market, abundant application scenarios and vast data resources. They are conducive to speeding up digital empowerment, driving economic growth drivers to shift from relying mainly on increasing input of factors of production to making development driven more by innovation, thus promoting high-quality development. They are conducive to improving public management and services, providing solid support for modernizing China's system and capacity for governance.

As data is distinct from traditional factors of production like land and capital, data work tends to be more complicated. For example, data exhibits both positive and negative externalities. On one hand, we promote its circulation and utilization to enhance resource allocation efficiency and foster new industries and business forms; on the other hand, we prevent privacy breaches, data abuses and other potential risks in a bid to achieve more efficient and more secure development. Additionally, as data work covers a broad scope, involves diverse entities and faces complex situations, we need to stimulate the driving forces of all parties and explore governance rules, methods and tools tailored to data characteristics, thereby improving governance effectiveness. For another example, data is both the result of and the resource for advancing digitalization, networking and intelligence. We need to accumulate data resources from digital transformation while deepening it through data development and utilization, with the aim to achieve positive interactions and coordinated development. What's more, it's challenging to balance data development and security. We should strengthen policy support for data development while adhering to data security laws and regulations, actively encouraging trials and exploring innovative development models. As such, to promote reforms related to the market-oriented allocation of data elements, we must rely on reform and innovation and harness the momentum of deepening reforms.

As part of our efforts to thoroughly implement the guiding principles of the third plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, we will focus on reforms related to the market-oriented allocation of data elements, improve the market system and rules for data elements, foster an integrated national market for data, and promote the development and utilization of data elements.

We will adhere to the principle of "establishing the new before abolishing the old," and build and improve basic systems for data. With a focus on system building, we will strengthen top-level design and overall planning, work to formulate policies related to data property rights, circulation and trading, income distribution, and security governance, and expedite the construction of basic systems that accommodate the characteristics of data elements, align with market rules and meet development needs.

We will give full play to the pioneering spirit at the community level and advance data infrastructure construction. We will accelerate the development of a nationally unified computing network and data infrastructure. Just as food requires a cold chain, infrastructure is also necessary for data circulation. We will support local pilot projects to create a "cold chain" for data.

We will adhere to a problem-oriented approach and remove bottlenecks constraining data development and utilization. We will focus on addressing concerns regarding compliance in data supply and utilization, continuously explore new paths for developing and utilizing public data and enterprise data, vigorously promote the "Data Element X" initiative, and tap into and unleash the value of data elements.

We will stimulate and enhance social vitality to strengthen and expand the data industry. We will leverage market mechanisms more effectively, foster and expand data enterprises, improve the data circulation and trading ecosystem, and cultivate a competitive, orderly, prosperous and dynamic data industry.

We will promote reform through opening up and strengthen international cooperation in the digital economy. We will pragmatically engage in mutually beneficial digital economy cooperation, strengthen cooperation platform construction, actively participate in the formulation of data governance rules, and develop new institutions for a higher-standard open economy. Thank you.