Binjiang District unveils blueprint to build 'China's Digital Valley'

Hangzhou's Binjiang District is the highland of the digital economy in China, with the added value of the digital industries reaching 172.3 billion yuan (US$24.9 billion) last year, accounting for nearly 80 percent of the district's gross domestic product.

Now, the district government believes it can sweeten the deal by building a "China's Digital Valley" with a new development blueprint and major tasks to turn it into "a district with the strongest digital economy in the country."

"To grab the opportunity from the digital industries, we will open up new areas and new arenas for development and steadily foster new growth drivers and new strengths. The China's Digital Valley will definitely bring a second economic upsurge in Binjiang," said Binjiang Party secretary Zhang Dengfeng.

On February 24, the government hosted an inauguration ceremony for the China's Digital Valley and honored the top 10 digital companies in 2022. On the site, local departments also signed contracts with leading companies to cooperate in five key financial projects and 10 investment projects.

The China's Digital Valley has been brought up in the context of a central government document, which involves 20 key measures marking "a landmark, overarching and strategic move" to continue deepening China's reform and opening up in the new era.

The 20 key measures highlight the importance of a modern industrial system led by the digital economy. The document encourages provinces and municipalities to enhance science and technology innovation and fully develop the potential of data elements.

Zhejiang is encouraged to play the pioneering role when conditions permit. The establishment of the China Digital Valley is a trial for the Binjiang government to implement the 20 key measures.

Within three to five years, the valley is expected to provide a good example to other cities in developing the digital industry.

Enterprises in the fields of cloud computing, big data, information security, infotech and chip manufacturing have been lured to the district, including Hikvision, H3C, Huawei, NetEase and Alibaba.

The industrial cluster gives Binjiang unparalleled conditions to build itself into China's digital valley. So far, Binjiang has cooperated with Huawei to build the Hangzhou Artificial Intelligence Calculation Center. As the first center of this type in Zhejiang, it enhances Binjiang's core competitiveness in this field.

Meanwhile, two digital trading centers and a data security lab have already been established here. The revenue of the digital industry is expected to be 600 billion yuan, and the digital trade volume is estimated to reach 40 billion yuan by 2025.

According to the blueprint and major tasks, local departments will cooperate with enterprises to give full play to the role of data resources, empower the real economy, promote high-quality development, and help strengthen, improve and expand the digital economy.

It will also respond to the technological revolution and industrial transformation and build new advantages for Zhejiang in international competition.

The Binjiang government will develop the China Digital Valley from four aspects, namely standards, markets, ecosystem and usage scenarios.

Institutional improvement will take place gradually, while key industrial standards in major areas, such as the definition of data property rights, data circulation and trading, will be put in place. Now the district government is exploring a "data compliance circulation digital certificate" in a bid to provide rules on digital trade.

Efforts will also be made to boost the digital economy in diversified markets and promote the efficient circulation and use of public data, enterprise data and data regulations. Binjiang will link itself to national and regional digital platforms, pilot offshore data transactions, allure more digital companies, gather professional service organizations and strengthen digital business.

In efforts to develop a favorable, healthy ecosystem for the industry, Binjiang will pilot reforms in data intellectual property rights protection, security management, data exchanges and revenue distribution.

Expanding the usage scenarios is also a key to developing the potential of data elements and boosting the real economy. In the future, the healthcare, intelligent manufacturing and cross-border e-commerce sectors will either directly generate profit from data or will be empowered by data from the core.