Digital economy can be development accelerator

In addition to the traditional investment and exports, the digital economy has become an important driver of economic development. In order to leverage the advantages of the digital economy, the country needs to make full efforts to have breakthroughs in technology and industry, cost and efficiency, as well as the development and governance models for the digital economy.

Policymakers should give full play to the scale and comparative advantages of China's digital economy. In 2022, the value added of China's information transmission, software and information technology services increased by 9.1 percent, and in the first quarter of this year, it increased by 12 percent. By the end of 2022, China had 1.07 billion internet users, more than the total population of developed countries in Europe and the United States.

The government should make full use of the efficiency of the digital economy and reduce the cost of the digital economy, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises. On the one hand, it is necessary to give full play to the legal advantages of the platform economy and the long tail theory of the digital economy, and give full play to the advantages of platform enterprises whose marginal cost is almost zero, so as to improve the efficiency of enterprises.

On the other hand, the costs of the digital economy should be greatly reduced, including but not limited to reducing the cost for small enterprises to access digital technology and digital platforms.

The country should accelerate the upgrading of technology and the digital economy industries by continuously boosting the vitality of industrial innovation, and strengthening the impetus for digital technology development that is the key to sustaining the prosperity of the digital economy.

In particular, the country needs to make breakthroughs in key technologies related to digital technology. In 2021, there were 276,000 invention patents for the core industries of the digital economy, accounting for 39.6 percent of the total number of invention patents granted.

The governments at various levels should improve their governance of the digital economy and seek to make better use of the digital economy. They should understand the basic laws of the digital economy, and take the initiative to guide its development so as to raise the speed and quality of the digital economy's growth.

China should accelerate its participation in the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement, Singapore, Chile and New Zealand signed in 2020 to strengthen the regulation of the digital economy. In the field of global governance of the digital economy, China needs to enlarge its say over rule-making in digital technology, digital standards and digital trade, which should at least match the size and influence of its digital economy.