In order to implement the important deployment of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on building a digital China, the National Data Bureau, together with relevant units, systematically summarised the important progress and effectiveness of the construction of a digital China in the year 2023, and compiled and completed the ‘Report on the Development of Digital China (2023)’ (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Report’), which was released at the Seventh Summit on the Construction of a Digital China.                   

Image source: NDA

The Report suggests that in 2023, the construction of Digital China will be generally characterised by four aspects, including a more solid foundation for development, a more prominent enabling effect, a more perfect digital security and governance system, and more in-depth international cooperation in the digital field. The Report points out that under the joint efforts of all regions and departments, positive progress has been made in the construction of Digital China in 2023. The pace of data foundation system construction has accelerated, and the national data work system with up-and-down linkage and horizontal synergy has taken initial shape. The digital infrastructure has been expanding and speeding up, and the total scale of arithmetic power has reached 230EFlops, ranking second in the world; key core technologies such as advanced technology, artificial intelligence, 5G/6G and other key core technologies have continued to make breakthroughs, and high-performance computing has continued to be in the first echelon of the world. The data factor market has become increasingly active, with total data production reaching 32.85ZB, a year-on-year increase of 22.44%.

According to the Report, the digital economy has steady growth, with the added value of core industries in the digital economy accounting for about 10 per cent of GDP; 62 ‘lighthouse factories’ have been built, accounting for 40 per cent of the global total; and the digital economy has become the world's largest e-tailing market for 11 consecutive years. The online service index of digital government continues to be the world's leading index, and we have actively promoted the ‘efficient completion of one thing’, with 92.5 per cent of the provincial administrative licensing matters being accepted online and ‘running at most once’. The construction of digital culture has been comprehensively promoted, with the number of digital reading users reaching 570 million. The digital society has become more inclusive and accessible, with the number of Internet users reaching 1.092 billion; digital education and digital medical and health service resources have accelerated the expansion and sinking of resources. The digital ecological civilisation has become even more successful, with a cumulative total of 196 green data centres nationwide, with an average power utilisation efficiency (PUE) of 1.27.

The Report points out that a data security system has basically been formed, and the Interim Measures for the Administration of Generative Artificial Intelligence Services, the world's first regulation specifically governing generative artificial intelligence services, has been issued. We have actively expanded international cooperation in the digital field, successfully held the Third Belt and Road Summit Forum on International Cooperation, such as the High-level Forum on the Digital Economy, and increased the number of partner countries of China's Silk Road E-commerce to 30, with the import and export volume of cross-border e-commerce reaching 2.38 trillion yuan.

Looking ahead to 2024, the construction of digital China will resonate with and synergise with China's accelerated development of new quality productivity, and become an important engine for promoting quality change, efficiency change and power change. As a next step, the National Data Bureau will work with all relevant departments in all regions to earnestly implement the Overall Layout Plan for the Construction of Digital China, focus on solidifying the digital base, comprehensively empowering transformation and development, continuously enhancing key capabilities, constantly optimising the development environment, deeply tapping into the potential value of data elements, and actively fostering the development of new-quality productive forces, so as to help the construction of Digital China to take a new step forward.