Binjiang District hosts data elements conference
The China Data-element Valley in Hangzhou's Binjiang District derives nearly three-quarters of the district's gross domestic product from the digital industry.
Binjiang District hosted the Data Elements Reform and Promotion Conference on April 8 at the China Data-element Valley, releasing a pilot scheme framework for data trade, a first batch of pilot companies, a data elements circulation compliance center and a compliance committee.
The practice and expertise of the valley during the past year has informed the framework, which is composed of four segments – the Hangzhou Data Exchange, data compliance circulation digital certificates, the Internet of data and the mutual recognition mechanism of blockchains.
The exchange was established last year to boost the digital economy in diversified markets and promote the efficient circulation and use of public data, business data and data regulations. It is China's only legal data trade platform for all digital companies.
The certificate has been applied in media and pharmaceutical data transactions, and proved both effective and practicable. It lowers the costs of verification and documentation of data compliance and transactions.
Certificates are accessible to supervision departments, which guarantees data security. In the future, they will be developed into a type of software infrastructure in the digital industry and used in more scenarios.
The compliance center, located in the China Data-element Valley, is China's first center of this type. It will promote talent cultivation and explore new mechanisms for data elements circulation.
The committee has recruited 15 professionals, including lawyers, law professors and business founders, to coordinate with local authorities in evaluation and supervision, fostering a favorable environment for the digital industry.
"The committee will center on the ownership affirmation of data processing and authorization of data circulation to seek a balance between supervision and management," said Zhang Ping, law professor from Peking University.
The framework has already been applied in six scenarios, including finance, multi-media and biomedicine.
Last year, 1,254 companies registered with the Hangzhou Data Exchange and launched 1,767 data products with a total trade volume of 4.57 billion yuan (US$631 million).
The China Data-element Valley was established last year as a trial to implement the 20 key measures of data initiated by the central government.
The 20 measures highlight the importance of a modern industrial system led by the digital economy, encouraging provinces and municipalities to enhance science and technology innovation, and fully developing the potential of data elements, which is considered "a landmark, overarching and strategic move" to continue deepening China's reform and opening up in the new era.
"Data elements reform is the core of the digital economy. We hope to develop the valley into the engine of Hangzhou, leading more groundbreaking technologies in blockchain, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and big data industries," said Yao Gaoyuan, mayor of Hangzhou.
At the conference, Binjiang government announced the first batch of pilot companies, encouraging them to explore new application scenarios and mechanisms in data trade under the scheme framework.
"We have launched data products in the fields of finance, public transportation and agriculture by analyzing big data," said Tang Kewei, CTO of Fullink Co. "With the help of our products, companies can understand the market better and then accelerate their research and development of products and technologies, maintaining their own advantages."
In the future, the compliance center and committee will support the pilot companies in legal consulting, risk screening, compliance evaluation and industrial guidance.
Dubbed "China's first digital district," Binjiang serves as a flagship of China's digital economy, with the value added by digital industries reaching 186.6 billion yuan last year, accounting for nearly 75.6 percent of the district's GDP. Local companies have applied for 551 patents related to data.
Thus far, the valley has attracted 75 prominent businesses in the fields of cloud computing, big data, information security, information technology and chip manufacturing, including NetEase, Baidu, Ant Group, IflyTech and Alibaba.
The district government aims to turn the valley into Zhejiang Province's leading digital economy hub through new initiatives.
