The Chinese government has committed to driving rapid growth in its “digital economy” during the 14th Five Year Plan that runs from 2021 to 2025.
The 14th Five Year Plan draft outline sets the target of an increase in the “added value of China’s digital economy core sectors” from 7.8% in 2020 to 10% by 2025.
It also specifies “seven major focal sectors” of China’s digital economy in future, including cloud computing, big data, the Internet of Things, the Industrial Internet of Things, blockchain technology, artificial intelligence, virtual reality and augmented reality.
The 2020 “China Digital Economy Development White Paper” (中国数字经济发展白皮书（2020年）) released by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) estimates that the added value of China’s digital economy was 35.8 trillion yuan (approx. USD$5.51 trillion) in 2019, accounting for 36.2% of GDP.
According to the report the added value of “digital industrialisation” was 7.1 trillion yuan, for a YoY rise of 11.1%.
The added value of “industrial digitisation” was 28.8 trillion yuan, accounting for 29.0% of GDP and emerging as a primary driver of China’s economic growth.
