CHINA has set its sights on the rapidly developing digital economy and digital trade to fuel economic development and seek higher-level opening up.

At the ongoing China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) in Beijing, products and services in the telemedicine, online education, digital entertainment and other industries have attracted significant attention from visitors.

For China, digital trade will surely help advance its opening up to a higher level, said vice commerce minister Wang Bingnan while addressing a forum at the CIFTIS.

China’s digital economy has achieved leapfrog development, said Xiao Yaqing, minister of industry and information technology, at the forum.

He said that the digital economy has become an important support for China’s high-quality economic development, as evidenced by the statistics.

In 2019, the country’s digital economy hit 35.8 trillion yuan (US$5.23 trillion), accounting for 36.2 percent of GDP.

Last year, China’s digital trade totaled US$203.6 billion, accounting for 26 percent of the country’s total trade in services and up 6.7 percent year on year, said Wang.

As a digital wave driven by the new generation of information and communication technologies gains momentum, the digital economy and digital trade have become new engines for global economic development.

“Data have become the most important trading resource after capital goods,” said Huai Jinpeng, a senior official with the China Association for Science and Technology.

He added that digital technologies play an increasingly important role in the services trade, and digital trade is the future of trade development.

Digital technologies allow for easier market entry and increased product diversity, making it easier for firms to produce, promote and distribute their products at lower costs, the World Trade Organization (WTO) said in its 2018 World Trade Report.

The WTO predicted that trade could grow yearly by 1.8 to 2 percentage points until 2030 as a result of falling trade costs, said the report.

It added that the share of services in global trade is projected to grow to 25 percent in 2030, as services in the composition of trade are expected to increase in importance.

In order to drive growth in China’s digital economy and digital trade, Xiao said efforts will be made to draw up plans on the development of big data, software, information communication and other industries, accelerate the construction of digital infrastructure, promote the large-scale commercial use of 5G and push ahead with the establishment of industrial internet big data centers.

Beijing authorities yesterday released plans to build a pilot zone for digital trade and big data exchange in a bid to boost technological innovation and opening up of its services sector and digital economy.

The plans propose building a system and mechanism for digital economy development, and will focus on the six major spheres of infrastructure construction, digital industrialization, industry digitization, digital governance, data valuation and digital trade development.

Beijing’s digital economy is planned to account for 55 percent of the region’s GDP by 2022, making Beijing a pioneer and demonstration zone for the development of the national digital economy.

(Xinhua, CGTN)