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SCIO briefing on the 4th Digital China Summit

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Chen Wenjun:

The floor is now open for questions. Please name the news outlet you work for before asking questions.

CCTV:

We noticed that the Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035 proposed to accelerate digital development and build a Digital China. Can you brief us on building a Digital China during the 13th Five-Year Plan period and the new measures to be taken during the 14th Five-Year Plan period? Thank you.

Yang Xiaowei:

Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has laid great emphasis on building China into a cyber power and a digital country. After the release of the Outline for National IT Application Development and the National IT Application Plan during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, China's Cyberspace Administration and related departments have implemented the strategic plan and continuously conducted monitoring and assessment of the work on building a Digital China. During past years, we have released the Report on the Development Process of Building a Digital China in succession and achieved great progress in building a Digital China. The achievements are mainly as follows:

First, we are now global leaders in information infrastructure construction. Our country has built the world's largest fiber-optic network and 4G network. The netizen population increased from 688 million by the end of 2015 to 989 million by the end of 2020. During the same period, the internet service popularization rate increased from 50.3% to 70.4%. The commercialization of 5G has picked up speed, with nearly 720,000 5G base stations completed and more than 200 million 5G terminals connected. The large-scale deployment of IPV6 in China has also been very effective.

Second, the innovation capacity of information technology continues to improve. Significant progress has been made in the research and development of some of our basic and general technologies, and the development of integrated circuit manufacturing, equipment and materials has been accelerated. 5G artificial intelligence (AI), as well as domestic high-performance computing and quantum computing, have made significant scientific research achievements. China's Innovation Index jumped from 29th place in 2015 to 14th place at the end of last year.

Third, the vitality of the development of the digital economy continues to increase. The digital economy continues to grow rapidly, and the quality and effectiveness of our digital economy development has been significantly enhanced. New formats and models keep emerging, and by the end of last year, the value added of the core capacity of the digital economy accounted for 7.8% of the GDP.

Fourth, the efficiency of e-government services has significantly improved. E-government has strongly supported the modernization of China's governance system and governance capacity, and the level of public services has continued to improve. As you know, in the last year, China's e-government development index improved its global ranking by 20 places compared to 2018. China's online service index has climbed to the 9th place globally, reaching a very high level.

Fifth, we accelerated IT popularization to bring convenience and benefits to the people. By the end of last year, the internet access rate in primary and middle schools across China had reached 100% and the long-distance medical collaboration network had covered 24,000 medical institutions. All the targets of internet access in relation to poverty alleviation were completed by the end of last year. Steady progress was made in the building of "digital villages", injecting new digitalized and IT application impetus to rural vitalization.

Sixth, international cooperation in regards to cyberspace was deepened. China proposed and launched the G20 Digital Economy Development and Cooperation Initiative, the Initiative on Belt and Road Digital Economy Cooperation, the Global Data Security Initiative and so on, thus contributing Chinese strength and plans to global digital economic development and cyberspace governance.