Wang Xuhui: Accelerating the Cultivation of a Unified National Data Market
As a new type of productive force, data constitutes the foundation of digitalization, networking, and intelligence. It has rapidly integrated into various links—including production, distribution, circulation, consumption, and social service management—profoundly altering modes of production, lifestyles, and social governance. In recent years, China’s scale advantage in data resources has continued to expand, and the activity level of data development and utilization has steadily risen. In 2024, the total national data production reached 41.06 zettabytes (ZB); the added value of core industries in the digital economy accounted for approximately 10% of GDP; and the number of data technology enterprises and data application enterprises utilizing large models increased by 57.21% and 37.14% year-on-year, respectively.
General Secretary Xi Jinping has emphasized the need to "improve the mechanism for factor participation in income distribution, and stimulate the vitality of productive forces such as labor, knowledge, technology, management, capital, and data," as well as to "coordinate the promotion of computing power infrastructure construction, and deepen the development, utilization, opening, and sharing of data resources." These important expositions point the way forward for further promoting the efficient allocation of resource factors and stimulating the potential of data factors under the new situation. The Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Further Comprehensively Deepening Reform and Advancing Chinese-path Modernization proposed to "cultivate a unified national market for technology and data" and to "construct and operate national data infrastructure to promote data sharing." During the "15th Five-Year Plan" period [1], to fully exert the amplifying, superimposing, and multiplying effects of data factors on economic development, and to further utilize China's comparative advantages in data resource scale and application scenarios, we must attach great importance to the optimized allocation of data resources. We must give full play to the decisive role of the market in resource allocation, better leverage the role of the government, accelerate the cultivation of a unified national data market, release the multiplier effect of data factors, and empower economic and social development.
Significant Advantages in Massive Data and Abundant Scenarios
Data is a basic strategic resource for the country and an important foundation for developing new quality productive forces. It plays a vital role in driving breakthroughs in technological innovation, optimizing the allocation of productive forces, accelerating industrial transformation and upgrading, and improving total factor productivity. It can be said that the more valuable data there is, the stronger the multiplier effect formed by the multi-source fusion of data, and the more solid the foundation for the development of the digital economy and even the intelligent economy.
In recent years, the scale of China's data production has grown rapidly. In 2023, the total national data production reached 32.85 ZB, a year-on-year increase of 22.44%. In 2024, China's data production accounted for 26.67% of the global total, and the volume of data used for artificial intelligence development, training, and inference increased by 40.95% year-on-year. In the production sphere, intelligent links such as process optimization, quality inspection, and production safety generate massive data at high frequency; in the consumption sphere, the data growth rate of intelligent devices such as smart homes and intelligent connected vehicles ranks at the forefront. At the regional level, data production in Guangdong, Jiangsu, Shandong, Zhejiang, Henan, and Sichuan accounts for nearly 60% of the national total. At the industrial level, the total data production in manufacturing, finance, and transportation and logistics ranks as the top three, while data production in new fields such as the low-altitude economy and robotics is also showing a positive development trend.
At the same time, application scenarios for data factors are constantly being enriched, and the level of application continues to improve. A complete industrial system, together with an industrial ecosystem characterized by integrated chains, comprehensive supporting facilities, and complete factors, provides support for the accelerated development of industrial digitalization and digital industrialization, as well as for the better application of data factors, the stimulation of data value, and the acceleration of technological iteration. Currently, intelligent manufacturing, smart cities, fintech, medical health, e-commerce, and transportation and logistics have become the main arenas for data application, with major data exchanges listing data products related to these scenarios. Simultaneously, the National Data Bureau, in conjunction with relevant localities and departments, is focusing on creating a batch of exemplary data application scenarios to explore the formation of replicable and scalable models. In 2024, the number of authorized invention patents in core industries of China's digital economy reached 500,000, ranking first in the world, with a year-on-year increase of 23.1%, far exceeding the global average growth rate.
Currently, China is in a critical period of transitioning between old and new drivers of growth [2]. Data factors have become the key bond linking the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries with the rapid development of emerging industries. Accelerating the cultivation of a unified national data market and improving the efficiency of market-based allocation of data factors is both an urgent priority to release the value of data factors and a strategic measure to transform China’s advantages in massive data and rich scenarios into new drivers of economic growth and new advantages in national competition.
Great Significance of Promoting Efficient Allocation of Data Factors
The market is the scarcest resource, and a super-large-scale market is where China’s advantage lies. It is a strategic move to make good use of market resources and advantages, push forward the construction of a national unified large market in depth, and bring the role of the world’s second-largest consumer market into full play. As the processes of digitalization, networking, and intelligence continue to accelerate, the importance of data factors among the various elements for developing new quality productive forces is becoming increasingly prominent. Data has a major impact on the transformation of traditional production methods and has become a fundamental and strategic resource. To promote the marketization and capitalization of data factors and ensure that data can be "supplied, circulated, utilized effectively, and kept secure," we must accelerate the construction of a national unified large market that is efficient, standardized, fairly competitive, and fully open—specifically cultivating a unified national data market to promote the smooth flow and efficient allocation of factor resources on a larger scale.
This is a necessity for constructing a New Development Paradigm and promoting high-quality development. Economic activity requires the organic connection of various productive forces across the links of production, distribution, circulation, and consumption, thereby achieving a circular flow. Whether in constructing the New Development Paradigm or promoting high-quality development, ensuring the unobstructed flow of the economic cycle is key. Promoting the smooth flow of various productive forces and comprehensively improving the efficiency of coordinated factor allocation is an essential part of this. As an important productive force, data possesses characteristics such as increasing returns and low-cost reuse, which are conducive to optimizing resource allocation, empowering the real economy, developing new quality productive forces, and promoting profound changes in production, life, economic development, and social governance. Data factors can promote the optimized reorganization of traditional productive forces such as technology, capital, labor, and land, overcoming adverse factors such as rising labor costs and diminishing marginal returns on capital investment. This significantly boosts total factor productivity, optimizes resource allocation efficiency, and maximizes benefits on a higher level and wider scale. It continuously spawns new industries, new business forms, new models, and new technologies. While driving changes in the quality, efficiency, and momentum of economic development, it also promotes the smooth circulation of information, technology, capital, and talent flows between the domestic and international markets, facilitating the alignment and integration of rules and systems as well as cooperation between market channels. Accelerating the cultivation of a unified national data market and giving full play to the role of data as a fundamental strategic resource to promote the smooth transition between old and new growth drivers is an inherent requirement [3] for constructing the New Development Paradigm and promoting high-quality development.
This is a necessity for gaining new advantages in international competition. With the accelerated innovation of technologies such as the Internet, big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and blockchain, the digital economy is developing at an unprecedented speed, with an unprecedented breadth of radiation and depth of influence, becoming a new focus of international competition. As a new type of productive force in the digital economy era, data can drive the development of new economic forms. It plays a role in solidifying the technological foundation and computing power base during the cultivation of strategic emerging industries, while providing support for the emergence of new business forms and models such as personalized customization and intelligent services. Only by accelerating the cultivation of a unified national data market, stimulating the multiplier effect of data factors, and promoting the participation of new productive forces in production and creation at a broader and deeper level to empower industrial upgrading, can China seize the initiative in international competition within the digital economy.
Exploring Paths for Data Marketization and Value Realization
Deepening the reform of market-based allocation of factors is a key link in building a national unified large market. Accelerating the cultivation of a unified national data market requires focusing on several primary directions. First, cultivate a unified large market. Regarding the promotion of data resource aggregation, the market should be able to accommodate public data, enterprise data, and personal data. In terms of breaking down regional market barriers to data circulation, it should eliminate "data islands" [4] and form interconnected mechanisms that cross regions, venues, scenarios, and enterprises. Second, cultivate a secure and open market. We must provide security guarantees for the opening and circulation of data, relying on trusted data spaces to form a life-cycle security guarantee mechanism and clarifying the data security protection responsibilities of all parties. While ensuring the secure circulation of data, all market entities should be allowed to fully enjoy the development dividends brought by the circulation of data factors. Third, cultivate a mutually beneficial and cooperative market. Data trading venues at all levels should perform functions such as compliance supervision and nodal support, forming a pattern of differentiated competition. This allows data trading venues at different levels to form benefit-sharing and compensation mechanisms, promoting reciprocal cooperation.
Currently, China has deployed the construction of National Data Factor Comprehensive Pilot Zones in ten provinces, including Beijing, Liaoning, Zhejiang, Anhui, Shandong, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Hainan, and Guizhou, supporting these regions in taking the lead in cultivating market entities and fostering a flourishing and robust data market. To accelerate the cultivation of a unified national data market, we must speed up the exploration of paths for data marketization and value realization, stimulate the multiplier effect of data factors on a larger scale, and fully release the efficiency of the integration between the real economy and the digital economy.
Accelerate the construction of basic data systems. It is necessary to fully understand and grasp the basic laws of data property rights, circulation, trading, usage, distribution, governance, and security, and to explore property rights systems and market systems conducive to data security protection, effective utilization, and compliant circulation. We should improve the mechanism for market-based allocation of data factors, expanding the scope of such allocation and the channels for participating in distribution according to value contribution. We must explore the establishment of a data property rights system, promoting the structural separation of data property rights and their orderly circulation. We should refine and standardize data circulation rules, building a trading system that promotes usage and circulation while combining on-exchange and off-exchange transactions. We must develop cross-border data circulation and trading in an orderly manner, establishing a trusted data circulation system where data sources are confirmable, usage scope is definable, circulation processes are traceable, and security risks are preventable. Furthermore, security must be integrated throughout the entire process of data governance, improving industry self-discipline mechanisms and standardizing the order of market development.
Strengthen data infrastructure construction. Promoting the extension and expansion of digital infrastructure toward data infrastructure, and effectively constructing and operating data infrastructure, is of great significance for supporting the implementation of basic data systems and cultivating a unified national data market. We must place the improvement of infrastructure levels in a prominent position, focusing on building national data infrastructure that is high-speed, interconnected, efficiently dispatched, open, inclusive, safe, and reliable. This will open up the "main arteries" of data circulation, unblock the cycle of data resources, and promote the development of data applications. We should promote the formation of a new type of infrastructure system aimed at releasing the value of data factors, with the network as support, computing power as the base, and data circulation and utilization facilities as the focus. Simultaneously, we should advance traditional infrastructure construction, focusing on key links of data circulation and core application scenarios, with unified planning, large-scale deployment, and systems integration to promote the optimization and upgrading of traditional infrastructure.
Adjust and optimize the supply of data factors. Improving the quantity and quality of data factor supply is an important lever for cultivating a unified national data market. We need to improve the supply level of public data, enterprise data, and personal data, attracting more demand-side parties to enter the market for trading. This will create an incentive for suppliers, achieving a virtuous cycle of mutual attraction between supply and demand. We should accelerate the development and utilization of public data resources, promote the development and utilization of enterprise data resources, and encourage the compliant utilization of personal data resources. We must strengthen the classified and hierarchical management of data, ensuring that what needs to be regulated is regulated and what needs to be released is released. By establishing a trusted data circulation system, we can enhance the availability, credibility, circulatability, and traceability of data. We should achieve dynamic management of the entire data circulation process, activating data value through compliant circulation and use while actively and effectively preventing and mitigating various data risks.
Coordinate the construction of standardized and efficient data trading venues. We must strengthen the systematic design of data trading venues, coordinately optimize their planned layout, and formulate a national unified system of standards for data trading and security to reduce transaction costs. We should guide the common development of various types of data trading venues, highlighting the compliance supervision and basic service functions of national-level data trading venues, and strengthening their public attributes and positioning for the public good. We should standardize regional data trading venues and industry-specific data trading platforms established by various regions and departments, constructing a multi-level market trading system and promoting regional and industry-specific data circulation and utilization. Finally, we should promote the interconnection of data trading venues, enabling differentiated competition among various data trading institutions to form a circulation system that is centralized, unified, complementary in function, and characterized by the coexistence of competition and cooperation.