China calls for faster push into 5G, IoT and supercomputing engines of growth in new grand digitalisation plan
- An acceleration of digitalisation is crucial to fully promoting China’s ‘great rejuvenation’, says road map released by ruling Communist Party
- The country aims to make significant progress in digitalisation by 2025, and reach ‘world-leading levels’ by 2035, according to the plan
China has issued a plan calling for accelerated development of 5G, the Internet of Things (IoT), data centres and supercomputing technologies, with these new engines expected to lead future digital growth.
An acceleration of digitalisation is crucial to fully promoting China’s “great rejuvenation”, according to a road map released by the ruling Communist Party and State Council on Monday, which calls for the construction of a “digital China”.
The country aims to make significant progress in digitalisation by 2025, and reach “world-leading levels” by 2035, according to the plan.
Digital infrastructure and data resources will be the main foundations of China’s grand plan, according to the State Council. The country also aims to promote the digital transition of its economy, governance, culture, society and business sectors, while strengthening digital innovation and security.
The country will speed up the buildout of 5G networks and gigabit optical networks to support development of IoT and large-scale application of the Beidou satellite navigation system, China’s version of GPS.
It will also optimise the deployment of data centres, supercomputing centres, and edge data centres to improve the country’s digital infrastructure.
The State Council also called for development of a national data management system and other related policies and mechanisms, to unleash the potential of China’s huge amount of data.
With over 1 billion internet users, China has benefited greatly from global digital transformation in recent times.
The country is also the world’s largest smartphone market with nearly 1 billion users, according to industry research firm Newzoo.
It has also taken a lead in rolling out next-generation 5G mobile networks, with over 1.15 million base stations installed, more than the rest of the world combined.
According to the plan, China will continue to support healthy development of “platform” firms, referring to Big Tech. The plan also stipulates that development of the digital econpmy will be a key measurement for the performance of local officials.
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China’s local governments have upped their bets on digital transformation. In January, China’s central Henan province, home to the world’s largest iPhone factory, announced it was investing 50 billion yuan (US$7.19 billion) on a digital infrastructure expansion programme to advance its labour-intensive manufacturing sector.
The central government has also set ambitious plans to bring digital technologies to the country’s social sectors, including healthcare, education, government works, and ecological management.
Last May, the central government published a national strategy on “cultural digitalisation”, which aims to build a “national culture big data system” by 2035 to fully digitalise and connect the country’s culture resources – enabling digitalised cultural products to be shared by all people.
According to market intelligence firm IDC, investment by Chinese firms in digital solutions is forecast to boom in the next five years, with 40 per cent of total revenue from China’s top 2,000 companies to be generated by digital products, services, and experiences, up from a current level of less than 20 per cent.
