“The world will not and should not be the same after the COVID-19 crisis,” said Zhou Weisheng, professor of Ritsumeikan University and director of the Research Institute of Global 3E in Japan in an interview with Science and Technology Daily, a newspaper published by China’s Ministry of Science and Technology. Amid the pandemic outbreak, he believed, innovation in creating a new global system merging the digital economy with the real one, and virtual space with the real world, should trigger a new type of globalization. This will change the way we produce and grow the economy, leading us to a low-carbon, recycling, smart, safe and secure society shared by all.
Digital economy propelling development as a new force
A 2015 report from America’s National Academy of Engineering, Making Value for America: Embracing the Future of Manufacturing, Technology, and Work, put forth an innovative strategy to promote the digital economy that integrates industry with services, said Zhou. The US is ranked as the world’s most digitally competitive economy, followed by China in the second place.
China’s digital economy totaled 22.4 trillion yuan in 2016, representing 30.1 percent of the nation’s GDP; in 2019, the figure surged to 31.3 trillion yuan, making the country the second largest economy digitally, according to the Statistical Report on Internet Development in China, released by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC). As of March 2020, the number of Chinese netizens reached 904 million, with the Internet penetration rate up to 64.5 percent. This will allow China to be better positioned to develop its digital economy from a demographic perspective. Moreover, the digital economic growth in China has ranked first in the world for three consecutive years.
In his recent delivery of the government work report, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang renewed the commitment to advance Internet Plus initiatives across the board and create new competitive strengths in the digital economy, after making a case for the new type of economy for the first time in his 2017 report.
At present, in the view of Zhou, the progress of a new round of technological and industrial changes accelerates; new technologies, applications, and business types, like artificial intelligence, big data, and the Internet of things, spring up; and the Internet is in a better position to grow than ever before. As the integration of the Internet Plus initiatives and industries quickens, the digital economy is emerging as China’s new economic driver and will lead the country in the post-COVID-19 economic development.
Moving China’s digital economy forward
“The pandemic has in many ways justified that the human race is a community with a shared future that interests and risks are so intertwined. Only with mutual support and cooperation can we maximize our interests and minimize the losses, whether it’s about the disease prevention and control or the protection of the global industrial chain or supply chain,” said Zhou. Also, the outbreak has shown that lots of things, international or domestic, governmental or non-governmental, corporation-related or start-up-linked, social or individual, can be done through the Internet, or the digital economy, and it proves to be an economical, environmentally-friendly, and sustainable approach accessible to the general public. For instance, carbon dioxide emissions have dropped significantly, which is attributed to not just a scaling-down of economic activities but also a change of the way we live and work.
“Going digital” is in essence an approach to forming an economy and industry. In other words, the Internet Plus initiatives are the means to create the digital economy, and going digital is about data science, digital technologies, the digital economy and digital society, with the latter two elements underpinned by the former two.
Data science has been more integrated with artificial intelligence, while motivating interdisciplinary research. That means the basic theory research will only become more critical.
Such digital technologies as artificial intelligence, the Internet of things, and blockchain, have ensured an already powerful force for digital economic growth. This will unleash tremendous opportunities in the following 50 years of a new technological revolution.
An ultimate goal is to achieve the digital economy, which is closely connected with the earth (comprising the environment, and resources or energy ensuring the survival of human beings), societies (including each nation’s industrial structure, and its economic, political and technological systems), and humankind (consisting of the lifestyle, health, safety and security, and value criteria). “We should move the digital economy forward in terms of the macroeconomic structure, and the ways we produce, consume and manage,” said Zhou.
Creating a China-Japan-ROK community of cooperation
According to Zhou, as the world’s most developed country, the US now has more than 1.6 million confirmed COVID-19 cases, with the death toll surpassing 100,000. While Europe, Russia, and the developing world are still struggling to battle against the disease, China, Japan, and South Korea have managed to contain the spread of the virus.
Given the geo-economic landscape, the prevention of public health and safety, international cooperation and China’s economic revitalization, he suggested cooperation among the three countries on the resumption and consolidation of industrial and supply chains, and on healthcare, sightseeing, and agriculture, among others. A China-Japan-ROK community that features mutually beneficial and complementary cooperation will be key to addressing their issues about economic recovery and non-traditional security.
“Cooperation among the three nations will benefit not just their respective economic and social recovery and growth, but also the world’s. Most of all, it will facilitate the formation of a new type of globalization and deliver sustainable economic development,” noted Zhou.
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