As the world‘s second largest digital economy, China is accelerating digital development, building a digital China, and steadily expanding institutional openings such as rules, regulations, management, and standards. On August 22, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Commerce answered a reporter’s question on the decision of the member states of the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA) to establish China’s accession to the working group. It was mentioned that China’s accession to the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA) ) The working group was formally established, which means that my country is fully advancing the negotiation of joining DEPA.
New infrastructure is an important foundation for the transformation and upgrading of my country’s digital economy. As the digital economy expands and opens up, my country’s new infrastructure will be accelerated to go overseas. Expert analysis believes that if China officially joins DEPA in the future, it will break the digital economy rule barriers between countries, bring China’s digital economy market opportunities to other DEPA member states, and further promote the expansion and opening of my country’s new infrastructure industry.
The working group was formally established
The digital economy is an important manifestation of a country’s comprehensive strength in the digital age and an important engine for building a modern economic system. In order to be compatible with high-standard international digital rules and actively willing to expand international cooperation in the digital economy, after much preliminary work, on August 19, China joined the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA) working group was formally established.
“The establishment of the joining working group means that my country will comprehensively advance the negotiation of joining DEPA. In the next step, China will fully prepare for joining DEPA under the framework of joining the working group, conduct substantive negotiations with DEPA members, and continue to advance the joining process.” Ministry spokesman said.
It is reported that DEPA was initiated by New Zealand, Singapore and Chile in May 2019 and signed in June 2020. It is the world‘s first digital economy regional agreement. The agreement focuses on e-commerce facilitation, data transfer liberalization, and personal information security, and provides for strengthening cooperation in areas such as artificial intelligence and financial technology.
“The original intention of DEPA is to solve the cross-border supervision of the digital economy, including cross-border payment supervision, cross-border data supervision, cross-border information security, etc., mainly to regulate the digital economic order of various countries.” Zhejiang University International Business School Digital Economy and Finance Pan Helin, co-director and researcher of the Innovation Research Center, said in an interview with a reporter from Beijing Business Daily, “On the one hand, it is to promote stability and solve the negative externalities in the development of the digital economy, such as security, and on the other hand, it is to promote development and make Countries in the region reduce barriers to cross-border transactions in the digital economy and encourage legitimate cross-border digital trade.”
Negotiations are in full swing, and China is not far from officially joining DEPA. According to Pan Helin, the process of joining DEPA is similar to that of joining the WTO. However, since there are not many DEPA member states at present, the negotiation is not difficult, mainly because the domestic law and the basic legal principles of DEPA need to be matched in terms of rules. “Since most of the negotiating objects are small economies, during the negotiation process, small economies may be considering safeguarding their own interests, and put forward more demands on government procurement and competition policy cooperation, but in general, they are all within the scope of negotiation. , there is no fundamental divergence of interests.”
It is worth noting that although there are only three member states of DEPA at present, its scope is still expanding. Chilean Foreign Minister Allamão said in a communique on November 23, 2021 that Chile welcomes and warmly supports China’s application to join DEPA, and welcomes the interest of countries such as Canada and South Korea to join the agreement. At present, South Korea is striving to join, and Canada, the United States and other countries are willing to join.
Promote my country’s new infrastructure to break the bottleneck of the stock
The construction of new infrastructure is the cornerstone of the development of the digital economy. Zhou Hanmin, member of the Standing Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, vice chairman of the China Democratic National Construction Association, and vice chairman of the Shanghai Municipal Political Consultative Conference, once publicly stated that in order to create an open and innovative system for digital trade, it is also necessary to speed up new infrastructure, build an international Internet exchange center, and build safe and convenient international Internet data Dedicated channel to strengthen the construction of digital trust security base.
China’s plan to join DEPA will help promote the expansion and opening of the digital trade field, and establish an integrated digital trade market with the same rules and compatible standards with its members, thereby promoting the expansion and development of the new infrastructure industry. “my country’s new infrastructure has experienced several years of vigorous development. The current stock is basically saturated, and the market supply is sufficient. Digital enterprises must break the stock bottleneck. On the one hand, they explore new infrastructure needs by developing new digital scene applications, and on the other hand, through the Export digital services and provide digital solutions across borders to realize the export of digital service trade.” Pan Helin explained, “But there are some restrictions on digital trade exports, mainly rule barriers. In order to protect data and information security, countries also want to Protecting domestic digital enterprises sets up higher barriers and restricts the flow of digital technology between countries, and DEPA is a feasible way to break down these barriers and build mutual trust between countries.”
In terms of specific rules setting, Professor Hong Tao, director of the Institute of Business Economics of Beijing Technology and Business University, pointed out in an interview with a reporter from Beijing Business Daily that the initial negotiation of DEPA will cover issues such as electronic invoices, artificial intelligence supervision, digital identity verification, and electronic payment. To pave the way for further support for the transformation and development of corresponding SMEs in the digital economy era. “These are some technology applications that are unique to China and have unique core competitiveness.”
In addition, joining DEPA is also conducive to expanding mutually beneficial cooperation with other countries in the emerging digital field, bringing business opportunities for enterprises to cooperate in the digital industry. According to Pan Helin, the influence of my country’s digital economy is mainly concentrated in the endogenous market. Many companies lack the ability to export technology in cross-border areas. Many digital technologies, such as digital government applications, are limited to the country. “In the future, through DEPA, on the one hand, as an early participant and leader, China can increase its influence on global digital trade rules; on the other hand, my country’s cloud computing and digital government have great demand abroad. The window of DEPA can export my country’s digital application capabilities to the outside world, so as to gain market access when other countries build digital infrastructure, and bring opportunities for my country’s digital-related industries to expand overseas.” Pan Helin said.
Bringing market opportunities to member states
“China is the world‘s second largest digital economy. It is accelerating digital development, building a digital China, and steadily expanding institutional openings such as rules, regulations, management, and standards,” said a spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce. “China is willing to work with other countries to shape openness. , a safe digital economy development environment, share the development dividends of the digital economy, and make positive contributions to promoting the development of the global digital economy.”
In fact, China’s accession to DEPA will also bring digital economy development opportunities to its member states. “On the one hand, my country’s digital industry is very developed, and it has certain industrial advantages compared to other DEPA countries.” Pan Helin introduced, “On the other hand, my country has a huge digital industry market, which is attractive to DEPA member countries. Yes, these countries especially want to participate in our market by exporting technology.”
Specifically, according to Hong Tao, in the past ten years, my country has narrowed the distance with developed countries and has begun to lead the development of digital technology. Among them, the popularization of 4G, the application of 5G, and the research and development of 6G in my country have steadily advanced. “Calculation” and other projects are accelerated. Data shows that my country’s artificial intelligence industry will reach 199.8 billion yuan in 2021, and it is expected to exceed 600 billion yuan in 2026, with a compound annual growth rate of 24.8%.
“China has a lot of experience in industry digitization, digital industrialization, digital capitalization, and digital governance, etc., which can be used for reference by DEPA members.” Hong Tao pointed out that China’s e-commerce is at the forefront of the world, and from 2013 to 2013 In 2021, my country’s online retailing ranks first in the world for nine consecutive years. my country has great advantages in online payment, electronic settlement, logistics and distribution, global logistics backbone hub, overseas warehouse construction, 5G promotion, and 6G research and development. “In addition, in January this year, the State Council issued the ’14th Five-Year’ Digital Economy Development Plan,” and all 11 projects mentioned in it can be introduced into DEPA member countries.”
With the continuous deepening of international cooperation in the digital economy, my country’s new infrastructure construction presents huge development prospects. According to the calculation of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, during the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, my country’s new infrastructure investment is expected to reach 10.6 trillion yuan, accounting for about 10% of the entire social infrastructure investment; the cumulative investment in 5G network construction will reach 1.2 trillion yuan, driving the industry The upstream and downstream of the chain and the application investment in various industries will exceed 3.5 trillion yuan.
“Our country is taking an open attitude and insisting on both ‘bringing in’ and ‘going out’. ‘Bringing in’ means bringing in basic technology, and ‘going out’ means going out in cross-border trade and controllable data.” Pan He Lin said. In this regard, Hong Tao further pointed out that this will be conducive to the development of the digital economy in my country and various partner countries, and will also help break the bottleneck set by the West for the development of China’s digital economy.
Beijing Business Daily reporter Tao Fengran LiliReturn to Sohu, see more
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