Data usage to broaden to more industries

China will ratchet up resources to expand application scenarios for data elements in various industries and bolster the supply and circulation of data as part of a broader push to fully unleash the value of its massive data resources and develop new quality productive forces, according to the country's top data governance regulator.

Liu Liehong, head of the National Data Administration, said as a new type of production factor, data is playing a vital role in promoting the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, improving total factor productivity and giving birth to new industries, new models and new growth drivers.

Liu made the remarks at the launch ceremony of a competition related to data elements held in Hefei, Anhui province, on Thursday, while emphasizing the significance of data in empowering social and economic development.

As enhanced utilization of data elements is still in its initial stages, Liu urged efforts to create more abundant applications in a wider range of sectors, improve the quality of data and give full play to its multiplier effects.

The scale of China's data resources ranks second worldwide, Liu said, adding that local authorities are actively exploring the authorization and operation of public data resources, while data merchants have played a crucial part in promoting the innovative development of data resources.

According to a guideline released by the NDA and 16 other government departments in January, more efforts will be made to advance the application of data elements in 12 key fields, such as industrial manufacturing, modern agriculture, trade circulation, transportation, financial services, technological innovation, culture and tourism.

The country will create more than 300 typical application scenarios for data elements, double the scale of data transactions, and nurture a batch of data merchants with strong innovation capacities and third-party professional service organizations, the guideline said.

"Expanding the application scenarios of data is a prerequisite for giving full play to the multiplier effect of data elements," said Ouyang Rihui, assistant dean of the China Center for Internet Economy Research at the Central University of Finance and Economics.

Ouyang also underlined the importance of accelerating the building of a unified domestic data elements market, promoting the confirmation of data-related rights, and exploring a data pricing mechanism and value assessment system in order to build basic systems for data and put data resources to better use.

Moreover, the in-depth integration of data with traditional industries will improve production efficiency, optimize the allocation of resources, and create novel business models and new social value, he added.