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China highlights data and ‘digital silk road’ in new plan to drive innovation as US tech rivalry intensifies
- China will adopt ‘forward-thinking plan’ for building digital economy, according to top planner and data agency
- Beijing will also boost international collaboration in digital trade and infrastructure through technology arm of the belt and road strategy
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Jane Caiin Beijing
China has pledged to push ahead with a plan to build a digital economy this year, drawing upon the country’s data assets to drive innovation amid an intensifying tech rivalry with the West.
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China will adopt an “appropriate forward-thinking plan” to accommodate future digital infrastructure needs, accelerate the creation of a national integrated computing network and pave the way for breakthroughs in digital technology and innovations in key areas, according to a government circular on digital economy work for 2024.
Beijing will also boost international cooperation on the digital economy, speed up trade digitalisation, create a sound environment for international collaboration and advance the development of the Digital Silk Road, the technology arm of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, it said.
The plan was released by the National Development Reform Commission (NDRC) and the National Data Administration (NDA), and excerpts were made public on the NDA’s WeChat account on Monday.
The NDA is supervised by the NDRC, China’s top economic planner, and was inaugurated in October as Beijing sought to pump up a faltering economy through innovation amid growing competition for hi-tech dominance with the US.
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