Voice of Think Tank Xinhua Daily

Nowadays, digital technology is increasingly integrated with the real economy, and the digital economy has become a powerful new kinetic energy for the high-quality development of China's economy. Recently, a number of ministries and commissions jointly issued a document to complete the layout design of the national integrated big data center system and officially launched the "East Calculation and West Calculation" project. The project aims to allocate centralized computing power demand to areas with high resource support, rationally allocate national data computing power, improve overall efficiency, improve China's digital economy infrastructure, and promote the development and prosperity of digital economy. The Yangtze River Delta is one of the areas where industrialization and urbanization are concentrated in China. 20 19 12 1 The Central Government issued the Outline of Regional Integration Development Plan for the Yangtze River Delta, which clarified the goal and mission of "building the digital Yangtze River Delta together" and required collaborative construction from three levels: new infrastructure, smart application and industrial internet. Conforming to and integrating into the layout of "east number and west number", "digital Yangtze River Delta" will surely shoulder new and greater responsibilities.

The digital Yangtze River Delta presents a good and solid development momentum.

One of the most serious problems facing the integrated and high-quality development of the Yangtze River Delta is how to break through the low-end, homogeneous and low-level industrial structure, build high-end, high-tech and clustered industrial chains, supply chains and value chains in the region, and realize industrial integration. To achieve this goal, a major understanding is: conforming to the development trend of digital economy, realizing the deep integration of the transformation and upgrading of the real economy and the innovation of digital technology is the strategic choice and realization path of industrial adjustment and integration and high-quality development. In 2020, the total digital economy in the Yangtze River Delta region will reach 10.83 trillion yuan, accounting for about 28% of the total digital economy in China and 44% of GDP in the Yangtze River Delta region. Among them, Jiangsu reached 4.4 trillion yuan, ranking first in the country. In 20021year, the added value of core industries of digital economy in Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions accounted for more than 10% of GDP.

From the development of digital infrastructure in the Yangtze River Delta, Hangzhou-Shanghai-Nanjing is ahead, giving full play to the advantages of digital infrastructure, and small and medium-sized cities are not far behind. Taizhou, Jinhua and Huzhou rank among the top ten in the region. Judging from the development of digital industry in the Yangtze River Delta, Hefei ranks in the top five, while Changzhou and Wuhu come from behind, achieving leap-forward development. From the perspective of industrial digitalization in the Yangtze River Delta, Shanghai, Suzhou and Ningbo have seized the "new highland" of industrial Internet and accelerated the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries. The Yangtze River Delta has become the leader of industrial digitalization. Judging from the ecological environment of digital economy in the Yangtze River Delta region, the application scenarios of digital governance are very rich. Many cities are working together to create a world-class digital business environment, and Wenzhou has become a "dark horse" in this field. At the same time, the Yangtze River Delta region is making efforts in ideology, infrastructure, industrial layout, public services and other aspects to further promote all-round integration and high-quality development. The market-oriented allocation of data elements ranks in the forefront of the country, laying a good foundation and development prospects for the digital Yangtze River Delta.

"East Calculation and West Calculation" Injects New Kinetic Energy into the Digital Yangtze River Delta

Talking about digital economy is inseparable from three elements: data, algorithm and computing power. From the perspective of political economy, data is the means of production, computing power is productivity, and algorithm is the production process. "Counting from east to west" is a national chess game, which arranges the productive forces and relations of production as a whole, taking into account the economic and social benefits.

The development of digital industry in the Yangtze River Delta has distinct regional characteristics. First, the basic ecology is good, there are many star cities in the physical manufacturing industry, and the digital new track is actively laid out and seized; Second, the scale has grown rapidly, showing a rapid development trend in recent years, accounting for 30% of the country; Third, the transformation and upgrading efforts are great, and the industrial digitalization has achieved remarkable results; Fourth, the space potential is great, and the digital economy is in the stage of cohesive development, which will boost the high-quality development of regional industries in the future. With the implementation of the layout of "calculating from the east to the west", the digital Yangtze River Delta will be deeply integrated into the overall development pattern of coordination and balance, enhance its advantages, overcome its shortcomings, obtain more scientific and optimized ecological support, and inject inexhaustible power into the economic and social development of the Yangtze River Delta.

As the leader of the Yangtze River Delta, Shanghai should play a leading role in the new track of digital economy. Shanghai has included the comprehensive promotion of urban digital transformation in the city's "14 th Five-Year Plan" and proposed to build an international digital capital with world influence. First, enhance their own advantages, accelerate scientific and technological innovation and breakthroughs in key core technologies, including increasing R&D support in key core areas, promoting the development of digital industries in key areas, and providing technical support for manufacturing upgrading. Second, actively lay out and seize the new digital track, strengthen the construction of new infrastructure of digital economy, accelerate the deep integration of Internet, big data, artificial intelligence technology and real economy, and provide important support for the digital transformation of manufacturing industry. The third is to build a highland of industrial internet industry, give play to the industrial cluster effect and regional demonstration role in key areas such as new energy vehicles, integrated circuits and biomedicine, and realize the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries with the help of industrial internet. The fourth is to promote the collaborative governance of the digital Yangtze River Delta industrial chain, strengthen the classification and classification management of industrial data, study and compile relevant unified standards, realize profound changes in the governance model of the digital economy industrial chain, and promote the coordinated development of the digital economy regions.

Jiangsu clearly put forward to build a new highland of national digital economy innovation and development, and strive to become an important hub node of global information network. In the integration of digital technology and real economy, Jiangsu has performed particularly well. Not only has an action plan for the development of industrial Internet been formulated, the layout of industrial core software and industrial software enterprises has been accelerated, industrial Internet data centers and new Internet exchange centers have been planned and constructed, but also the digital transformation of enterprises has been promoted, factories and enterprises have been benchmarked, and a national "5G+ industrial Internet" integrated application pilot zone has been actively created, and efforts have been made to create a national industrial Internet leading zone driven by innovation, led by application and active in ecology. With a clear goal, Jiangsu's industrial digitalization practice is deepening, and multi-dimensional changes will certainly help Jiangsu enterprises to reconstruct product models, decision-making mechanisms and organizational structures, and completely upgrade their commercial capabilities and digital technology capabilities, thus making Jiangsu's manufacturing competitiveness leap forward.

Four points should be paid attention to in the digital Yangtze River Delta

The foundation of digital economy is connection, and the key is integration. It is forbidden to create "information chimneys", "data islands" and "emphasizing technology over application". Digital Yangtze River Delta is the foundation and cornerstone of high-quality development of regional integration. In the development of the overall layout of "east calculation and west calculation", we should focus on four points.

The second is to focus on integration and become the high-end head area of the digital economy. The digital economy naturally has Internet spiritual characteristics such as freedom, openness, equality, cooperation and enjoyment, which is the lifeblood of the development of the Internet and the lifeblood of the digital economy. In the internet age, everyone is contributing data, and everyone has computing power. According to statistics, the overall idle computing power of China's mobile phones is huge, about 800 Shenwei Taihu Lake Light. The digital Yangtze River Delta should achieve a win-win situation of regional cooperation and integration with an open mind, and strive to develop and build an open source platform to become the head region of the digital economy.

The third is to pay attention to inclusiveness and carry out digital training for the whole people with the people as the center. Digital economy is an economy enjoyed by the whole people, and it should form a good development ecosystem in which scientists, engineers and ordinary people are organically integrated. Just like when computers were first popularized, a small number of people were doing it, and later realized that it was no good. Without popularization, scientific and technological progress will lose its meaning. It is necessary to train the public on the inclusiveness of the digital economy, overcome the "digital barrier", let the people realize the benefits of the digital economy and participate extensively, so as to lay a solid foundation for the development of the digital Yangtze River Delta.

Fourth, pay attention to honesty and beware of disorderly expansion of capital. Digital economy is a data-intensive, technology-intensive and capital-intensive economic activity, which cannot be separated from the support of capital. But on the other hand, it is also easy to bring unfair competition behaviors such as monopoly, discrimination and disclosure due to data advantages, algorithm advantages, technological advantages and capital advantages. In the process of promoting the digital Yangtze River Delta, we should guard against the disorderly expansion of capital and implement effective supervision and standardized guidance for digital platform enterprises. If the digital economy becomes the myth narrative of capital seeking profits, it will deviate from the initial intention that the new economic innovation is the dividend of the progress of human civilization, and it will not be stable and far-reaching. It is necessary to avoid speculation and rush headlong into action, and promote the project landing scientifically and reasonably in accordance with the laws of technological evolution and innovation.

About the author: He Jianhua, researcher of Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, dean of the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration New Development Research Institute of Nantong University.