Source: Xinhua.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has released the 14th Five-Year Plan for the development of the big data industry, targeting a measured industry scale of more than 3 trillion yuan by 2025, with average annual compound growth of around 25 percent and the basic formation of a modern big data industry system marked by strong innovation, high added value and independent controllability. What are the highlights of the plan, and how will the industry’s shortcomings be addressed?
High growth, deep integration
During the 13th Five-Year period the big data industry grew from a standing start, with annual compound growth above 30 percent and a scale exceeding 1 trillion yuan in 2020.
Gao Yingmai, director of the digital transformation research office at the China Center for Information Industry Development, said the industry shows high growth and high integration: its compound growth rate far outpaced overall economic growth, a product and service system covering the whole data life cycle has largely taken shape, and the industry’s supply capacity has been reinforced by demand from digital transformation across the economy.
Objective conditions keep improving. Liu Xu, senior vice president of ThinkTank ZC, noted that awareness of big data applications is rising fast among governments, companies and individuals, who increasingly rely on data analysis for decisions. China’s population size and market scale also mean industries accumulate data quickly, an advantage for accelerated development. Since the 13th Five-Year period, eight national big data comprehensive pilot zones, including Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Shanghai and Guizhou, have pioneered trials and built 11 national new-type industrialisation demonstration bases in big data, significantly strengthening industrial clustering.
Fixing shortcomings to unlock data value
The industry still faces bottlenecks. Gao Yingmai cited missing core technologies, weak capabilities in open-source architectures and core algorithms, low efficiency in translating research into results, insufficient high-end products and deep application solutions, and uneven data literacy across organisations.
“Quite a high proportion of companies, departments and staff lack the mindset of speaking, deciding, managing and innovating with data, so the value of data is hard to release. The industry also faces a pronounced talent gap; people who master big data technology and understand the business deeply are especially scarce,” said Xie Shaofeng, head of the Information Technology Development Department at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
The plan sets out key tasks in six areas, from accelerating the market for data elements and leveraging the distinctive advantages of big data to consolidating industrial foundations, building a stable and efficient industrial chain, fostering an orderly ecosystem and strengthening data security. Six special actions cover data governance capability, key standards, industrial big data value, industry data development, enterprise capability upgrading and a data security shield.
Liu Xu suggested that while building a national integrated big data centre system and the national industrial internet big data centre, attention should go to data standards and their adoption; that data governance companies, especially those with deep industry expertise, should be encouraged; and that companies should cultivate hybrid talent who combine information technology with business knowledge.
New direction, new path
Xie Shaofeng said the big data industry is the body, the foundation and the key of the digital economy. The 14th Five-Year period will see the industry enter a new stage of integrated innovation, rapid development, deep application and structural optimisation.
Gao Yingmai summarised the plan’s highlights as “one innovation and two coordinations”: innovatively proposing to leverage the distinctive advantages of big data, with fast dynamic updating and high application value, guided by both technology application and institutional optimisation; coordinating the upgrading of industrial foundations and the modernisation of industrial chains, led by the value chain; and coordinating development and security, regulating the data element market while strengthening data security.
Xie Shaofeng summarised the plan as responding to a new situation, setting a new direction and proposing a new path: oriented toward releasing the value of data elements, centred on growing the industry itself, and supported by stronger industrial foundations, with new infrastructure, technological innovation and standards as the focus, and the product, service and value chains as the main structure of the industrial chain, uniting digital industrialisation and industrial digitalisation while further strengthening data security.
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