(Source: China Business News, 2024-12-1)
Recently, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on the Reform and Innovation of Digital w88" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions").
The "Opinions" propose that by 2029, the scale of digitally deliverable service w88 will account for more than 45% of my country's total service w88, and an institutional mechanism to adapt to the development of digital w88 will be basically established; by 2035, the scale of digitally deliverable service w88 will account for more than 50% of my country's total service w88, an orderly, safe, and efficient digital w88 governance system will be fully established, and the level of institutional openness will be comprehensively improved.
According to the "China Digital w88 Development Report 2024" released by the Ministry of Commerce in October this year, China's import and export volume of digitally deliverable services in 2023 was US$385.9 billion, a year-on-year growth of 3.5%, accounting for 41.36% of the total service w88.
Zhou Nianli, a professor at the National Institute for Opening up to the Outside World and the China WTO Research Institute at the w88 casino, and a member of the National Digital w88 Expert Working GroupIn an exclusive interview with a reporter from China Business News, he said that based on the existing data, the goals of the "Opinions" were formulated based on prudent and pragmatic principles, which are both feasible and maintain a moderate reservation for possible changes in statistical caliber.
The "Opinions" include a total of 18 articles and propose three key tasks, namely supporting the development of digital w88 subdivisions and business entities, promoting the institutional opening of digital w88 and improving the digital w88 governance system.
"In the future, we need to not only enhance our ability to accept existing international rules and become more mature at the policy and technical levels, but also proactively export rules in areas where we have comparative advantages and gradually assume the role of global rule makers. This is not only the key to enhancing our international voice, but also an important way to promote more balanced and inclusive global digital w88 rules." Zhou Nianli said.
A big country in digital w88, but there are still shortcomings
According to the website of the Ministry of Commerce, the relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Commerce stated when interpreting the "Opinions" that in recent years, digital w88 has developed vigorously and has become a new trend in the development of international w88 and a new growth point for the world economy. my country is a major country in the digital economy and foreign w88. It has a good industrial foundation and broad market space for the development of digital w88. However, there are still shortcomings such as insufficient competitiveness of business entities, insufficient openness, and insufficient governance systems.
From a global perspective, according to statistics from the World w88 Organization (WTO), global exports of digital delivery services will be worth US$4.25 trillion in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 9%, accounting for 54.2% of global service exports. From 2019 to 2023, the average annual growth rate of global digital delivery service exports reached 10.8%, which was 4.9 percentage points higher than the growth rate of service exports in the same period.
According to the report of the Ministry of Commerce, in terms of exports, the top five economies in global digital delivery service exports in 2023 are the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, India, and Germany, with their combined export volume accounting for 45.2% of the world. The only two developing economies in the top 10 are India and China. Among them, China ranks 6th, accounting for 4.9% of the world. From the perspective of imports, the top five economies in global digital delivery service imports in 2023 are the United States, Ireland, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands, accounting for a combined global share of 38.1%. China is the only developing country among the top 10 economies, ranking 7th, accounting for 4.4% of the world.
Zhou Nianli said that my country has significant advantages in digital ordering w88, especially in the field of cross-border e-commerce. As a major and powerful country in e-commerce, all indicators are in a leading position. The second is the field of digital content products. Some phenomenal achievements show that my country has strong creativity and market competitiveness in this field, such as the short video platform TikTok, the digital game "Black Wukong" and Li Ziqi's short videos, etc., which have attracted widespread attention around the world. However, in digital services w88 and digital technology w88, technological innovation capabilities and international competitiveness need to be further improved.
From the perspective of openness, Zhou Nianli said that the Digital Services w88 Restrictions Index (DSTRI) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) evaluates the openness of digital services w88 from five dimensions: infrastructure and connectivity, legal environment, data governance, market access and intellectual property rights. Calculation results show that my country's overall barriers are relatively high. One of the main reasons is that the control of cross-border data flows is relatively strict.
Cultivation of business entities and promotion of institutional opening
The relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Commerce said that the "Opinions" put forward three key tasks.
First, support the development of digital w88 subdivisions and business entities. It includes five tasks, including actively developing digital product w88, continuously optimizing digital service w88, vigorously developing digital technology w88, promoting high-quality development of data ordering w88, and cultivating and strengthening digital w88 operating entities, and strives to shape new momentum and new advantages for the development of my country's digital w88.
Zhou Nianli explained that traditional international w88 participants are mainly medium and large enterprises, while the business entities of digital w88 are showing a diversification trend, and the w88 model is more fragmented, showing the characteristics of small packages and high frequency. The participants have also expanded from large enterprises to more small, medium and micro enterprises and self-employed individuals.
“Digital w88 is highly inclusive, lowering w88 thresholds and allowing more disadvantaged groups to participate in international w88. For example, through live streaming, many farmers can directly participate in international w88.” Zhou Nianli said, but these diverse subjects face certain risks and challenges when participating in digital w88. Therefore, it is necessary to help these entities better participate in digital w88 through cultivation and support and make full use of the opportunities provided by digital w88. The "Opinions" clearly propose the need to strengthen digital w88 business entities. This is not only to support large enterprises, but also to help small, medium and micro enterprises better integrate into the global digital w88 system.
The second is to promote the institutional opening of digital w88. It includes three tasks, including relaxing market access in the digital field, promoting and regulating cross-border data flows, and building a high-level open platform for digital w88, and strives to expand my country's opening up to the outside world in the digital field.
In terms of market access, the "Opinions" propose to improve the pre-establishment national treatment plus negative list management model, promote the orderly expansion of opening up in fields such as telecommunications, Internet, and culture, and encourage foreign companies to expand investment in the digital field.
In September 2023, my country proposed to expand the opening up of service fields such as telecommunications, tourism, law, and vocational examinations. In April this year, my country deployed pilot projects to expand the opening up of value-added telecommunications services to the outside world in Beijing, Shanghai, Hainan and Shenzhen, allowing foreign-funded enterprises to operate wholly-owned telecommunications businesses such as Internet data centers (IDCs), online data processing and transaction processing in the pilot areas, and deeply participate in my country's computing power, cloud services and other markets.
Zhou Nianli said that judging from the above-mentioned policy measures, the telecommunications and Internet industries have been the pressure sectors for the government to expand the opening up of the service industry in recent years. In contrast, the opening up of the cultural field is special. It not only has commercial value, but also carries cultural attributes. Therefore, opening up to the outside world needs to be more cautious.
"Many economies, such as the European Union, also restrict the complete liberalization of cultural w88 through the principle of cultural exceptions. In digital service w88, the digital cultural sector is particularly sensitive. How to promote openness on the basis of ensuring cultural security and find a balance between security and openness is an important challenge and focus at present." She said.
From the perspective of cross-border data flow, the "Opinions" pointed out that the data export security management system should be improved, relevant mechanisms and procedures should be improved, and data export security assessment should be carried out in a standardized and orderly manner. On the premise of ensuring the security of important data and personal information, establish an efficient, convenient and secure cross-border data flow mechanism to promote the orderly flow of data across borders.
Zhou Nianli introduced that in recent years, my country has adopted a series of measures to improve the cross-border data flow supervision system and improve the level of openness. Currently, the legal framework is based on the National Security Law, combined with the Cybersecurity Law, Data Security Law and Personal Information Protection Law, as well as a series of supporting rules, methods and guidelines to form a "1+3+N" system. The focus of supervision is divided into important data and personal data. The export of important data needs to undergo a security assessment by the Cyberspace Administration of China, while personal data can be transmitted cross-border through security assessment or standard contracts depending on the scale.
Zhou Nianli said that although the path is clear, there are still difficulties in implementation in actual operations. For example, it is often difficult for companies to determine whether their own data is “important data.” In response, in March 2024, the Cyberspace Administration of China issued the "Measures for Promoting and Regulating Cross-Border Data Flows", which clarified that important data should be defined by the competent authorities or public channels.
She added that currently, various places, especially free w88 zones and free w88 ports, are exploring facilitation mechanisms. Some regions adopt a negative list management model, whereby data not included in the list can flow freely; other regions adopt a positive list model, which clearly defines the categories of data that are allowed to flow freely. These explorations can help reduce compliance costs for businesses.
Enhancing the right to speak in the formulation of international rules
The relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Commerce said that in terms of improving the digital w88 governance system, the "Opinions" include four tasks: actively participating in the formulation of international rules for digital w88, deepening international cooperation in digital w88, accelerating the construction of a digital trust system, and strengthening security governance in the digital field, striving to improve the level of my country's digital w88 governance.
Zhou Nianli said that our country has two major tasks and challenges in rule formulation and participation. First, when connecting to international high-standard rules, these rules are mainly formulated by other countries. As the recipient, my country needs to integrate with the existing rules, which brings about problems in cross-border data flow and market opening.
For example, international rules such as the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA) and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) impose non-discriminatory treatment requirements on digital products, which means that my country needs to provide digital products in the region with the same national treatment as its own products, which puts forward higher requirements for market opening. Another typical challenge is the rule on the permanent exemption of electronic transmissions from tariffs, which requires member states to waive their right to impose tariffs on w88 activities based on electronic transmissions. Whether to accept this rule needs to be decided based on my country's position in electronic transmission w88. However, a common technical challenge facing the world is that the data statistics on electronically transmitted w88 imports and exports are incomplete, which exacerbates the uncertainty of policy making.
The second is my country’s challenge in exporting international rules. Zhou Nianli said: "For a long time, we have been more of a recipient and follower of rules and have insufficient experience in leading the formulation of rules. However, as my country's industrial foundation and strength in the field of digital w88 increase, active participation in rule formulation is an inevitable trend."
She said that in emerging fields such as artificial intelligence, China and the United States are already considered the first echelon in the world, but under the WTO framework, the governance rules for artificial intelligence are still blank. As an industry leader, China has the necessity and ability to make demands for rules in these areas and fill the gaps in international rules.
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