National data infra design underway

China's latest efforts to construct a national data infrastructure are expected to fully unleash the value of massive data elements, bolster the development and utilization of data and facilitate the high-quality growth of the country's digital economy, said officials and experts.

China's investment in data infrastructure will attract about 400 billion yuan ($54.6 billion) in annual direct investment, with the total scale reaching about 2 trillion yuan over the next five years, said the country's top data governance regulator.

Shen Zhulin, deputy head of the National Data Administration, said at a recent news conference in Beijing that the newly launched guideline on the construction of a national data infrastructure will drive the circulation and utilization of data, as well as promote the establishment and upgrading of networks, computing power and facilities related to data security.

"The guideline will boost effective social investment and inject fresh momentum into high-quality economic and social development," Shen said, adding that the move will reduce the threshold of data development and utilization for enterprises, and cultivate a good ecosystem for the data industry.

He said that promoting data opening and sharing — and unleashing the value of data elements — is a key task in promoting the construction of a national data infrastructure. Shen also highlighted the significance of improving laws and regulations concerning data security.

The guideline, jointly issued on Monday by the National Development and Reform Commission, the National Data Administration and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said China aims to complete the building of the core infrastructure of a national data system by 2029.

The guideline, which is the country's first policy document on national data infrastructure construction, stated that efforts will be made to complete the top-level design of a national data infrastructure, and to build such infrastructure that supports large-scale data circulation and interconnectivity, while integrating data networks and computing power facilities between 2027 and 2028.

The move is part of the country's broader push to build a unified national data market and develop the digital economy. The country has also vowed to upgrade the 5G network to 5G-advanced, or 5G-A, a crucial upgrade of the 5G network in functionality and coverage, and promote 6G-related research, development and innovation, according to the guideline.

Du Wei, director of the department of digital technology and infrastructure construction at the National Data Administration, said the move is aimed at facilitating the large-scale circulation and utilization of data in various regions, industries and enterprises, giving play to the advantages of massive data and abundant application scenarios and advancing the construction of a "Digital China".

Statistics from the administration show that China's total data output reached 32.85 zettabytes in 2023, up 22.44 percent year-on-year, while the added value of core digital economy industries accounted for 10 percent of GDP.

Du said that only 2.9 percent of data have been reserved, and enterprise data — which haven't been utilized for more than a year — account for nearly 40 percent of the total, so the efficiency of data circulation and utilization needs to be further improved.

Zhu Keli, founding director of the China Institute of New Economy, said the mobility and allocation efficiency of data elements will be significantly elevated through the building of national data infrastructure, thus injecting new vitality into the digital economy.

"The launch of the new guideline will help propel deeper integration of data elements with the real economy, boost the transformation and upgrading of industries and cultivate new economic growth drivers, while attracting more social capital and resources to invest in the digital economy domain," Zhu said.

Noting that computing power facilities are crucial for building such new infrastructure, Zhao Zhidan, deputy director of the NDRC's department of innovation and high-tech development, said heightened efforts will be made to accelerate the construction of a national unified computing power network, deepen the integration of computing power with a wide range of fields like finance, industry and transportation, and bolster the green and low-carbon development of computing power centers.