Beijing's digital economy is experiencing rapid growth with an added value of 918.05 billion yuan ($128.65 billion) in the first half of 2023, up 8.7 percent from 2022.The digital economy's contribution to regional GDP has risen by 1.1 percentage points year-on-year to reach 44.5 percent.
The core industries of the digital economy recorded an added value of 556.51 billion yuan, accounting for more than 60 percent of the total added value of the digital economy and representing a growth rate of 10.9 percent compared with 2022.
During the 2023 Global Digital Economy Conference recently held in Beijing, Jiang Guangzhi, director of the Beijing Bureau of Economy and Information Technology, said that the capital stands at the forefront of the country's digital economy development.
In 2022, the added value of Beijing's digital economy reached 1.73 trillion yuan, accounting for 41.6 percent of the regional GDP. The market size for the production factor of data in Beijing reached around 35 billion yuan, accounting for 39 percent of the country's total, according to Jiang.
With a vision to become a global benchmark for the digital economy, Beijing has focused on nurturing digital industry clusters, which serve as the foundation of its goal. As of October 2022, Beijing had 1,048 core artificial intelligence companies, representing 29 percent of the nation's total core AI companies.
According to the Report on the Development of Beijing's Digital Economy (2022-23), released at the conference, Beijing has been exploring new models for cultivating emerging digital economy industries. The sizes of various emerging digital industries in Beijing rank among the biggest in the country.
Beijing has completed the construction of the high-level autonomous driving demonstration zone 2.0 phase and is now proceeding with phase 3.0. Meanwhile, the municipal computing center is building a large-scale AI model training platform and a blockchain advanced computing experimental platform.
Jiang said Beijing will take the lead in establishing a system for managing data property rights and income distribution. Efforts will be intensified to enhance the utilization of data assets through measures such as data asset registration, asset assessment and financial innovation.
Jiang noted that Beijing will enhance the functions of the Beijing International Big Data Exchange and develop the data service industry. Additionally, the city will support State-owned enterprises, online platform operators and other organizations with the resources to establish data groups, data companies or data research institutes in Beijing.
Mao Dongjun, deputy director of the Beijing Bureau of Economy and Information Technology, said at the Beijing News & Seashell Finance Summer Summit 2023 that Beijing has made initial progress in establishing a digital technology innovation system that is independently controlled and features integrated research and production, as well as software and hardware.
Mao highlighted that the vitality of the digital economy in Beijing has been fully stimulated. In the future, efforts will be made to strengthen policy innovation and standardization, establish a foundational data system and achieve breakthroughs in key technologies.
