In the report of the 20th CPC National Congress, the General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that we should accelerate the development of the digital economy, promote the deep integration of digital economy and real economy, and build a digital industrial cluster with international competitiveness. The important statement of the General Secretary Xi Jinping on the relationship between digital economy and real economy has profoundly revealed the internal law of the development of digital economy, scientifically answered the major issue of the era of how to realize the deep integration of digital economy and real economy in the process of Chinese path to modernization, and provided fundamental guidance for the in-depth promotion of theoretical innovation and practical innovation in the development of digital economy.

In recent years, the new generation of digital wave led by cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence and other technologies is overwhelming. In the face of the complex and changeable external environment and the new normal of epidemic prevention and control, many offline scenarios such as production, life and government affairs have been accelerated to move online. The digital transformation has been accelerated. The application depth and breadth of digital technology have been continuously expanded. New technologies, new business forms and new models have emerged in endlessly. The digital economy has gradually become an emerging economic form following the agricultural economy and industrial economy. Statistics show that the scale of China’s digital economy exceeded 45 trillion Chinese yuan by the end of 2021, accounting for 39.8% of GDP. The digital economy has become the half of China’s economy and the main growth point of China’s economy.

Developing digital economy is not competing with real economy. The manufacturing industry has always been the pillar of the national economy, the foundation of a country, the instrument of rejuvenating a country, the foundation of strengthening a country, and the main battlefield of digital economy. The strategic deployment to promote the integrated development of digital economy and real economy put forward in the report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China means that the real economy should be the main attack direction and key breakthrough of the second half of digital economy. In fact, the development of digital economy can not only help to open up the upstream and downstream of manufacturing supply chain, many links of the industrial chain and various nodes of the service chain, accelerate the promotion of industrial digital transformation and upgrading, but also constantly optimize the business process, continuously reduce the production and transaction costs, and fundamentally realize the efficiency change, power change, and quality change. Besides, the new generation of information technology helps to continuously enrich and expand the digital application scenarios in all sectors of economy, thereby catalyzing the “digital butterfly” of traditional manufacturing. In this sense, the development of digital economy is a strong support for the transformation and upgrading of real economy.

This shows that the key point of developing digital economy is to promote real economy with digital economy. In other words, it is necessary to take digitalization, networking and intelligence as the starting point, fully explore the mechanism of data elements enabling high-quality development of digital economy, accelerate digital industrialization and industrial digitalization, and establish a host of digital industrial clusters with considerable international influence and competitiveness. In the new era and new journey, we should make full use of the key historical window period, take promoting real economy with digital economy as the focus of high-quality development of digital economy, give new meanings to real economy in the process of Chinese path to modernization, comprehensively open a new blue ocean of digital transformation, and give new impetus to accelerate the construction of a new development pattern and promote high-quality development.

Consolidate the base point of digital industrialization. We will develop the core industries of digital economy, such as electronic information manufacturing, information and communication, software services and the Internet, and bring new infrastructure, products and services through digital technology. Digital industrialization can be regarded as the first mover of digital economy. The new digital infrastructure is a new productivity in the digital era. We should continue to cultivate and strengthen the emerging digital industries such as cloud computing, big data, 5G, artificial intelligence, blockchain, and metaverse, give full play to the construction efficiency of the project of channeling computing resources from the East to the West, accelerate the establishment of national integrated computing network and national integrated government big data system, expand and strengthen the digital industry, and constantly build a solid foundation for the development of digital economy.

Focus on industry digitalization. Industry digitalization is the digitalization of the whole life cycle of production and operation activities such as production, distribution, circulation, consumption and investment in the digital world. On the one hand, we should promote the digital reshaping of industrial manufacturing, agricultural production, public services, social governance and other scenarios, use the new generation of information technology to transform traditional industries in an all-round, all-angle, full-chain and full-cycle way, give full play to the expansion, superposition and multiplication of digital technology on economic development, and constantly improve the international competitiveness of digital industrial clusters. On the other hand, in the process of industrial digitalization, we need to form a new industrial cooperation system, resource allocation system, value co-creation system and global governance system, and accelerate the formation of a new double-cycle development pattern.

Clear the data governance bottleneck. Data element is the fifth production element after land, labor force, technology and capital. It surpasses the basic attribute, function form and value-added mode of traditional elements and becomes a strategic resource to seize the leading track in the digital era. To promote the real economy with the digital economy, the key is to give full play to the lubricant role of data elements in the development of digital economy, speed up the solution of the epochal problems of data elements like ownership, pricing and circulation, explore the enabling mechanism of data elements, clarify the policy target of anti-monopoly in digital economy, accelerate the data sharing and opening up, promote the market-oriented allocation and cross-border flow of data elements, take the data flow as the driving force to get through the talent flow, business flow, capital flow and technology flow, and continuously inject a continuous source of living water for the healthy development of digital economy.

(Author: Zhai Yun, researcher of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era Research Center and researcher of Public Administration Department, Party School of the Central Committee of C.P.C [National Academy of Governance])