Only by building a production relationship compatible with the development of digital productivity and constantly liberating and developing digital productivity can the multiplier effect of digital technology and data elements be fundamentally exerted

Recently, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued the Opinions on Building a Data Foundation System to Better Play the Role of Data Elements (hereinafter referred to as the Opinions), putting forward 20 policy measures from data property rights, circulation and transaction, income distribution and security governance to accelerate the construction of China’s data foundation system. This will promote the efficient circulation and use of data, activate the potential of data elements, and have a positive and far-reaching impact on the development of digital economy.

Developing digital economy is a strategic choice to grasp the new round of technological revolution and new opportunities for industrial transformation. In the era of digital economy, explosive growth and massive accumulation of data have increasingly become indispensable new production factors, constitute important strategic resources of the country, and contain huge value. On the one hand, data is the basis of digitalization, networking and intelligence, and it is rapidly integrated into production, distribution, circulation, consumption and social service management. On the other hand, only when data flows can it generate more possibilities and greater productivity. Constantly improving the data infrastructure system and accelerating the construction of a nationwide unified data element market can promote the market-oriented allocation of data elements, meet demand and realize value. Therefore, building a data foundation institutional system is not only a key measure to advance the development of digital economy, but also an important part of promoting the high-quality development of economy and society, and pushing forward the modernization of national governance system and governance capacity.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China has actively explored and promoted the marketization of data elements and accelerated the construction of a digital economy with data as the key element, and has made positive progress. From the Opinions on Building a More Perfect System for the Market-based Allocation of Elements to accelerate the cultivation of the data element market, to the Civil Code has included data into the protection scope for the first time, and laws and regulations such as the Data Security Law and the Personal Information Protection Law successively issued, to the Development of Digital Economy during the Fourteenth Five-Year Plan Period, which has made important arrangements to give full play to the value of data elements, a series of policy measures and institutional arrangements have formed the top-level design and directional guidance of data element market, and built the frame of market-oriented allocation reform of data elements.

The Opinions issued this time adhere to the main line of promoting the efficient circulation and use of data compliance and empowering the real economy, put forward to build four systems including data property rights, circulation transactions, income distribution, and security governance, strengthen the Party’s overall leadership on the construction of data infrastructure system, increase policy support, actively encourage experimental exploration, and steadily promote the system construction, aiming at effectively removing the institutional barriers that hinder the supply, circulation and use of data elements. The accelerated release of institutional dividend will help to give full play to the advantages of China’s massive data scale and rich application scenarios, bring the role of data elements into full play, and promote the in-depth development of digital economy.

Building a data foundation system is a landmark, comprehensive and strategic measure for China’s reform and opening up to the outside world in the new era. Since the reform and opening up, China has made institutional breakthroughs and institutional innovations in key production factors such as land, labor, capital and technology, which have effectively improved the quality and efficiency of development. In the era of digital economy, digital technology is a new type of productivity with fast iteration, high efficiency and low application cost. Data is a new type of production factor with attributes of non-competitiveness, unlimited supply, easy replication, and extremely low marginal cost. Only by establishing a production relationship suitable for the development of digital productivity in accordance with the times and circumstances, and constantly liberating and developing digital productivity, can China fundamentally play the multiplier effect of digital technology and data elements, and lay a more solid foundation for promoting the transformation and upgrading of economic structure and achieving high-quality development.

At present, digital economy is becoming a key force in restructuring global factor resources, reshaping the global economic structure and changing the global competition pattern. Promoting the market-oriented reform of data elements, further handling the relationship between the government and the market, institutional innovation and technological innovation, efficient circulation and use, safety and controllability, and building a more complete data foundation system can maximize the exploring of data elements and inject strong impetus into the development of China’s digital economy.