My Take | China takes bold step in turning public data into gold mine like land sales

Local governments across China are sitting on a vast trove of data collected over the years, but have little idea on how to turn these assets into tradable commodities. In the famous words of former paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, local authorities are “crossing the river by feeling the stones” in terms of turning data into valuable assets.

That difficult journey began in 2020 when the Communist Party designated data as another production factor along with land, labour, capital and technology. The goal was to set up a “market-based” mechanism that would allocate data efficiently through the forces of supply and demand, just like other resources.

But there is still a huge gap between vision and reality, as fundamental questions remain unanswered.These include who owns public data, what data can be put on sale, where can data be traded, and how such trades can be conducted.

The road map became clearer this month, after the Central Committee of the Communist Party issued a policy document on “accelerating development and use of public data resources”, which provides political support and guidelines to local governments.

According to the document, all public data generated in the process of public services are “strategic resources” for the nation. This paves the way for local governments to control and sell data in a similar way to land sales. Local governments in China generate revenue by selling to commercial developers the rights to use “publicly owned land”. As such, it would be possible in a Chinese public data market to recognise local governments as the ultimate owner of data.