The Logic and Practice of Digital Economy Empowering High-Quality Development

The digital economy is a new economic form brought about by the latest round of technological revolution and industrial transformation. It is accelerating its deep integration with various economic and social fields, becoming an important engine driving high-quality economic development. General Secretary Xi Jinping attaches great importance to the development of the digital economy, issuing a series of important instructions and directives, emphasizing “accelerating the development of the digital economy” and “vigorously developing the digital economy.” The “Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Further Comprehensively Deepening Reform and Promoting Chinese-Path Modernization” adopted at the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC [n1] proposed improving the institutional mechanisms for promoting high-quality economic development and included accelerating the establishment of institutional mechanisms for promoting the development of the digital economy as one of its components.

数字经济是新一轮科技革命和产业变革带来的新经济形态，正加速与经济社会各领域深度融合，成为驱动经济高质量发展的重要引擎。习近平总书记高度重视数字经济发展，作出一系列重要指示批示，强调“加快发展数字经济”“大力发展数字经济”。党的二十届三中全会通过的《中共中央关于进一步全面深化改革、推进中国式现代化的决定》提出，健全推动经济高质量发展体制机制，并把加快构建促进数字经济发展体制机制作为其中的一项内容。

In recent years, China’s digital economy has developed rapidly, with its scale growing from 11.2 trillion yuan in 2012 to 53.9 trillion yuan in 2023. In 2024, the added value of core industries in the digital economy accounted for approximately 10% of the gross domestic product. Facing the accelerating global trends of digitalization, networking, and intelligence, it is necessary to seize new opportunities for digital economy development, promote the deep integration of the real economy and the digital economy, comprehensively empower high-quality economic and social development, and inject strong momentum into accelerating the realization of Chinese-path modernization.

近年来，我国数字经济快速发展，规模已从2012年的11.2万亿元增长至2023年的53.9万亿元，2024年数字经济核心产业增加值占国内生产总值比重达到10%左右。面对全球数字化、网络化、智能化加速发展趋势，需紧抓数字经济发展新机遇，推动实体经济和数字经济深度融合，全面赋能经济社会高质量发展，为加快实现中国式现代化注入强劲动力。

Embodying the Inherent Requirements of the New Development Philosophy

体现新发展理念内在要求

High-quality development is development that can well meet the people’s ever-growing needs for a better life and is development that embodies the New Development Philosophy. The New Development Philosophy profoundly answers a series of theoretical and practical questions concerning the purpose, driving force, mode, and path of development, serving as the “baton” and “traffic light” guiding high-quality development. The digital economy, with data as a key factor, relies on digital technology innovation to improve total factor productivity, promote coordinated industrial development, facilitate green and low-carbon transformation, deepen opening-up and cooperation through global digital trade, and help achieve the sharing of development outcomes. It can be said that the digital economy, to a certain extent, embodies the inherent requirements of the New Development Philosophy.

高质量发展，就是能够很好满足人民日益增长的美好生活需要的发展，是体现新发展理念的发展。新发展理念深刻回答了关于发展的目的、动力、方式、路径等一系列理论和实践问题，是引领高质量发展的“指挥棒”“红绿灯”。而数字经济以数据为关键要素，依托数字技术创新提高全要素生产率，推动产业协同发展，促进绿色低碳转型，通过全球数字贸易深化对外开放合作，助力实现发展成果共享。可以说，数字经济在一定程度上体现了新发展理念的内在要求。

The digital economy drives innovation-driven development. In the era of the digital economy, data has become a new type of production factor. Digital technology combines with traditional factors such as land, labor, and capital to form a new paradigm of digital economy development driven by data and application scenarios. It permeates all links of production, distribution, circulation, and consumption, promoting qualitative changes, efficiency changes, and動力變革 in economic development, and facilitating the continuous transformation of innovation “potential energy” into economic “kinetic energy.” At the same time, the digital economy also serves the digital transformation of the three industries [n2]. Through deep empowerment of the three industries by digital technology, it promotes their digitalization and intelligentization, improving industrial efficiency and product added value, and enhancing total factor productivity. Furthermore, the development of the digital economy, especially digital platforms as new carriers of economic activity, can reduce barriers to the flow of innovation factors between spaces and industries, break through time and space constraints, accelerate the aggregation, integration, and sharing of innovation resources, and thereby promote economic and social development through the efficient utilization of innovation factors. From an innovation perspective, the digital economy is not a simple overlay of technological tools; rather, it provides powerful momentum for high-quality development by activating the “innovation genes” of the economic system.

数字经济驱动创新发展。数字经济时代，数据成为新型生产要素，数字技术与土地、劳动力、资本等传统要素相结合，构成基于数据和应用场景驱动的数字经济发展新范式，并渗透到生产、分配、流通、消费各环节，推动经济发展质量变革、效率变革、动力变革，促进创新“势能”向经济“动能”持续转化。同时，数字经济还服务于三次产业的数字化改造，通过数字技术对三次产业深度赋能，推动三次产业走向数字化、智能化，提高产业效率和产品附加值，提升全要素生产率。此外，数字经济的发展尤其是数字平台成为经济活动的新型载体，可减少创新要素在空间和行业之间的流动障碍，突破时空限制，加速创新资源的集聚整合与共享开放，进而以创新要素的高效利用促进经济社会发展。从创新视角看，数字经济并非简单的技术工具叠加，而是通过激活经济体系的“创新基因”，为高质量发展提供强大动能。

The digital economy promotes coordinated development. In terms of regional coordinated development, the digital economy provides opportunities for less developed regions and enterprises to “change lanes and overtake.” First, the development of the digital economy spawns new models and new business forms such as the platform economy, the gig economy, and the sharing economy. Through data factorization, industrial digitalization, service platformization, and experience immersion, it promotes the diversified development of regional industries. By leveraging industrial internet platforms and supply chain digitalization platforms, it enables data interoperability, capacity sharing, and flexible collaboration between upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain, helping to achieve the rationalization and upgrading of industrial structure, effectively improving product quality and production efficiency, and continuously enhancing regional industrial resilience. Second, enterprises use digital technology to systematically restructure traditional value chains, reshaping business processes, organizational structures, and business models. For example, some enterprises choose to locate their R&D centers and headquarters in first-tier cities with dense talent, while placing data centers and storage servers in central and western regions with lower costs. By optimizing the spatial layout of industries to improve efficiency and competitiveness, this helps form an efficient and rational regional division of labor system. Additionally, the continuous improvement of rural digital infrastructure shortens the geographical distance between cities and villages. E-commerce live streaming provides low-cost marketing channels and trading markets for county and rural specialty products, helping to increase farmers’ incomes and narrow the urban-rural income gap. It is evident that the digital economy, through its penetrative and empowering nature, is smoothing the flow, exchange, and aggregation of resource factors, helping to form a regional economic layout with distinct characteristics, complementary advantages, and coordinated development.

数字经济促进协调发展。在区域协调发展方面，数字经济为后发地区、企业提供了“变道超车”的契机。首先，数字经济的发展衍生出平台经济、零工经济、共享经济等新模式新业态，通过数据要素化、产业数字化、服务平台化、体验沉浸化等促进区域产业多样化发展，并借助工业互联网平台、供应链数字化平台实现产业链上下游企业间数据互通、产能共享、柔性协同，助推产业结构实现合理化与高级化，实现产品质量、生产效率有效提升及区域产业韧性不断增强。其次，企业通过利用数字技术对传统价值链进行系统性重构，实现业务流程、组织架构和商业模式重塑。例如，一些企业选择将研发中心、总部设在人才密集的一线城市，将数据中心、存储服务器等设置在成本更低的中西部地区，通过优化产业空间布局以提升效率和竞争力，这有助于形成高效合理的区域分工体系。此外，农村数字基础设施的不断完善缩短了城市与农村的地理距离，电商直播为县域和乡村特色产品提供了低成本的营销渠道与交易市场，有助于提高农民收入，缩小城乡收入差距。可见，数字经济正通过其渗透性和赋能性，畅通资源要素的流动、交换与集聚，助力形成各具特色、优势互补、协同发展的区域经济布局。

The digital economy supports green development. Promoting the green transformation of the development model means breaking away from the path dependence on traditional high-energy-consumption, high-emission development models, achieving a continuous decline in energy consumption and carbon emission intensity while promoting high-quality economic development. With the rapid development of the digital economy, the use of industrial internet, artificial intelligence, and digital twin technologies enables in-depth monitoring and real-time data analysis of the entire process of R&D, design, production, operation, and maintenance in industries such as manufacturing. This helps achieve dynamic optimization and intelligent regulation of production parameters, reduces energy and material waste, and significantly improves energy and resource utilization efficiency. It not only reduces waste and pollutant emissions at the end but also achieves emission reduction at the source of production. Furthermore, the digital economy can empower regional and urban ecological environment protection efforts. Using technologies such as IoT sensors, satellite remote sensing, drones, big data, and blockchain, it is possible to build an integrated sky-earth-sea ecological environment monitoring network, achieving round-the-clock, all-region real-time monitoring of ecological elements such as the atmosphere, water, soil, and forests, accurately identifying environmental pollution incidents, and promptly and efficiently solving ecological environment damage problems. In summary, through data-driven and technology-enabled approaches, the digital economy systematically optimizes and reshapes the production methods of the economic society across all links, including source prevention, process control, and end-of-pipe treatment, achieving a win-win situation for economic development and environmental protection.

数字经济支撑绿色发展。推动发展方式绿色转型，就是要摆脱对高能耗、高排放的传统发展方式的路径依赖，在推动经济高质量发展的同时实现能耗与碳排放强度的持续下降。伴随数字经济快速发展，利用工业互联网、人工智能和数字孪生技术，能够对制造业等行业的研发、设计、生产、运维全流程进行深度监控和实时数据解析，有助于实现生产参数动态优化与智能调控，减少能源和物料浪费，大幅提升能源和资源利用效率，不仅从末端减少废弃物和污染物排放，更从生产源头实现减排。此外，数字经济可赋能区域和城市生态环境保护工作，利用物联网传感器、卫星遥感、无人机、大数据、区块链等技术，构建天空地海一体化生态环境监测网络，实现对大气、水、土壤、森林等生态要素的全天候、全地域实时监控，精准识别环境污染事件，及时高效解决生态环境破坏问题。总之，数字经济通过数据驱动和技术赋能，在源头预防、过程管控、末端治理等全环节对经济社会的生产方式进行系统优化与重塑，实现经济发展与环境保护的双赢。

The digital economy advances open development. On the one hand, it promotes trade digitalization. Enterprises use big data analysis to accurately understand overseas market demands and consumer preferences, reduce information asymmetry, and promote the transformation of potential demand into actual demand. Digital technologies such as big data, the Internet of Things, and blockchain effectively improve the efficiency of cross-border payments and customs clearance, significantly lowering the threshold for “global buying and global selling.” On the other hand, it facilitates investment precision. Enterprises use big data analysis to predict global industry trends, market potential, and risks, effectively guiding the orderly flow of capital and making cross-border investment more precise and efficient. Therefore, the digital economy can optimize the allocation of global resources by reducing transaction costs and eliminating information asymmetry, constructing a new operational model for global trade and investment.

数字经济推进开放发展。一方面，推动贸易数字化。企业利用大数据分析精准了解海外市场需求、消费者偏好，减少信息不对称，推动潜在需求转化为现实需求。大数据、物联网、区块链等数字技术有效提升跨境支付和通关效率，使“全球买、全球卖”的门槛大幅降低。另一方面，促进投资精准化。企业利用大数据分析预判全球产业动态、市场潜力和风险，有效引导资本有序流动，使跨境投资更加精准高效。因此，数字经济能够通过降低交易成本、消除信息不对称，优化全球资源配置，构建全球贸易与投资的新运行模式。

The digital economy contributes to shared development. The digital economy helps address regional disparities and uneven resource distribution, promoting equality of opportunity in fields such as education, healthcare, and employment. For example, new models and new business forms such as telemedicine and online education can bring high-quality educational and medical resources to more people, to some extent compensating for the shortage of public service resources in less developed areas. In terms of employment, the job creation effect brought by the digital economy promotes the development of flexible employment and new forms of employment, generates demand for new occupations, and creates new job positions. In summary, by breaking down geographical barriers and promoting the equalization of basic public services, the digital economy enables more people to enjoy the dividends of technological progress, contributing to the promotion of common prosperity.

数字经济助力共享发展。数字经济有助于解决地域差异和资源分配不均问题，促进教育、医疗、就业等领域的机会公平。例如，远程医疗、在线教育等新模式新业态，可使优质的教育和医疗资源惠及更多人群，在一定程度上弥补欠发达地区公共服务资源的不足。在就业方面，数字经济带来的就业创造效应，促进了灵活就业和新就业形态发展，派生出新职业需求，创造新增就业岗位。总之，数字经济通过打破地域限制，促进基本公共服务均等化，能够让更多人享受到科技进步带来的红利，为推动共同富裕作出贡献。

Implementation Paths for Empowering Economic Development

赋能经济发展的实现路径

The digital economy aligns with the requirements of the New Development Philosophy and, in practice, empowers high-quality economic development by promoting industrial structure upgrading and optimizing factor allocation.

数字经济契合新发展理念的要求，并在实践中通过促进产业结构升级、优化要素配置等，赋能经济高质量发展。

From the perspective of industrial structure upgrading, the digital economy plays a significant role in promoting the advancement of industrial structure, driving the industrial value chain from the low end to the mid-to-high end. Specifically, the digital economy relies on the innovation and application of digital technologies such as big data, the Internet of Things, 5G, and artificial intelligence. Through functions such as "empowerment, transformation, substitution, and integration," it breaks down industrial boundaries from the supply side and the demand side, accelerates the mutual penetration and integration of related industries, promotes the extension of industrial chains, spawns new industries and new business forms, drives the upgrading of industrial structure toward high technology and high added value, and promotes the steady development of industrial intelligence, integration, and green transformation. This process is also a transition from traditional factor-driven to innovation-driven development, helping to achieve the advancement of industrial structure. The advancement of industrial structure enhances total factor productivity by improving factor allocation efficiency, promoting technological innovation spillovers, driving green transformation, and strengthening economic resilience, thereby laying a solid foundation for high-quality economic development. At the same time, the advancement of industrial structure forces traditional industries to accelerate transformation and upgrading to better adapt to and lead new trends in consumption upgrading, thereby providing higher-quality and more diversified products and services, promoting a higher-level dynamic balance between supply and demand, and boosting high-quality economic development.

从产业结构升级层面看，数字经济对产业结构高级化具有重要的促进作用，能够驱动产业价值链从低端向中高端迈进。具体来看，数字经济依托大数据、物联网、5G、人工智能等数字技术的革新与应用，通过“赋能、改造、替代、融合”等作用，从供给端、需求端等打破产业边界，加速关联产业相互渗透融合，促进产业链延伸，催生新产业新业态，驱动产业结构向高技术、高附加值方向升级，推动产业智能化、融合化、绿色化稳步发展。这一过程也是从传统要素驱动向创新驱动转变的过程，可助力实现产业结构的高级化。产业结构高级化通过提升要素配置效率、促进技术创新溢出、推动绿色转型和增强经济韧性等途径提升全要素生产率，为经济高质量发展奠定稳固基础。同时，产业结构高级化还会倒逼传统产业加快转型升级，以更好适应和引领消费升级新趋势，进而提供更高质量、更多元化的产品和服务，推动实现供给与需求更高水平动态平衡，助推经济高质量发展。

From the perspective of factor allocation, the digital economy expands the breadth and depth of the application of production factors. Through the penetration and synergy of data elements, it profoundly changes the traditional model of factor allocation and improves factor allocation efficiency. The key to optimizing factor allocation lies in precisely investing resource elements such as labor, capital, and technology into key areas, maximizing the efficiency of factor utilization, and achieving an optimal balance between input and output. On the one hand, digital platforms can precisely match supply and demand, guiding the efficient flow of labor, capital, and technology across time and space. On the other hand, algorithmic recommendation mechanisms can quickly identify areas of factor misallocation, promoting the transfer of stock factors to high-productivity sectors, forming an allocation model of "data-driven + algorithm optimization." For example, digital finance, relying on digital technologies such as big data, the Internet, and cloud computing, as well as digital financial service platforms, can promote the rational allocation of financial resources on the supply and demand sides, prevent the misallocation of financial resources caused by information asymmetry, and improve resource utilization efficiency. Therefore, the digital economy forms a virtuous cycle of "precise matching—efficiency improvement—value multiplication" by optimizing factor allocation, providing strong support for promoting high-quality economic development.

从要素配置层面看，数字经济拓展了生产要素的应用广度和深度，通过数据要素的渗透与协同，深刻改变传统要素配置模式，提升要素配置效率。优化要素配置的重点在于，通过将劳动力、资本、技术等资源要素精准投入到关键领域，实现要素利用的效率最大化，并实现投入与产出之间的最优平衡。一方面，数字平台能够精准匹配供需，引导劳动力、资本、技术在时空上高效流动。另一方面，算法推荐机制等能快速识别要素错配领域，推动存量要素向高生产率部门转移，形成“数据驱动+算法优化”的配置模式。例如，数字金融依托大数据、互联网、云计算等数字技术和数字化金融服务平台，能够推动金融资源在供需端的合理配置，防止金融资源因信息不对称引致的错配，提升资源利用效率。因此，数字经济通过优化要素配置形成“精准匹配—效率提升—价值倍增”的良性循环，为推动经济高质量发展提供有力支撑。

Strengthen, Optimize, and Expand the Digital Economy

做强做优做大数字经济

Currently, new business forms and models spawned by digital technology are widely penetrating all fields and processes of the economy and society, and their leading and supporting role in high-quality development is increasingly prominent. However, it must also be noted that the problem of China's digital economy being large but not strong, and fast but not excellent, remains unresolved, prominently manifested in the imperfect governance system of the digital economy, insufficient innovation in key core technologies, and a low degree of integration between the real economy and digital technology. In the future, it is still necessary to seize new opportunities from the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, continuously strengthen, optimize, and expand the digital economy, and further empower high-quality development.

当前，数字技术催生的新业态、新模式广泛渗透到经济社会各领域全过程，对高质量发展的引领支撑作用日益凸显。但还要看到，我国数字经济发展大而不强、快而不优问题仍未解决，突出表现为数字经济治理体系不完善、关键核心技术创新不足、实数融合程度偏低等。未来，仍需把握新一轮科技革命和产业变革新机遇，不断做强做优做大数字经济，进一步赋能高质量发展。

Strengthen top-level design and institutional mechanism construction. Make overall plans around the construction of a Digital China [3]3 Digital China (数字中国) is a national strategy proposed by the CPC to promote the digital transformation of the economy, government, and society through the application of digital technologies., clarifying development priorities, spatial layout, and timelines and roadmaps. While accelerating the digital and intelligent transformation and upgrading of traditional infrastructure, preemptively deploy the construction of new infrastructure represented by 5G, gigabit optical networks, big data centers, the Internet of Things, and industrial internet, and enhance the capability to tackle key core technologies. Establish cross-departmental and cross-regional collaborative governance mechanisms, break down data silos and policy barriers, and promote the integration and open sharing of data resources. Accelerate data legislation, clarify rules for data ownership, circulation, trading, and security, explore cross-border data flow rules suitable for digital service trade, establish and improve market rules for data elements, and expand application scenarios for the digital economy. Strengthen the cultivation of digital skills talents, enhance the digital literacy and skills of the entire population, and form a joint force to promote the development of the digital economy.

强化顶层设计和体制机制建设。围绕数字中国建设做好统筹规划，明确发展重点、空间布局和时间表路线图。在加速传统基础设施数字化、智能化改造升级的同时，超前部署以5G、千兆光网、大数据中心、物联网、工业互联网等为代表的新型基础设施建设，提升关键核心技术攻关能力。建立跨部门、跨区域的协同治理机制，打破数据孤岛和政策壁垒，推进数据资源整合和开放共享。加快数据立法，明确数据权属、流通、交易和安全规则，探索与数字服务贸易相适应的跨境数据流动规则，建立健全数据要素市场规则，拓展数字经济应用场景。强化数字技能人才培养，提升全民数字素养与技能，形成共促数字经济发展的合力。

Advance the tackling of key core digital technologies. Build a self-reliant and self-strengthening digital technology innovation system, further clarify the main direction of digital technology innovation, formulate plans for tackling key core digital technology innovations, provide future development direction guidance and policy support for technological innovation entities such as enterprises, research institutions, and higher education institutions, and increase resource allocation and financial support for leading enterprises in the digital economy. Strengthen supervision and management in multiple aspects, including financial support, financial support, talent cultivation, intellectual property protection, transformation of scientific and technological achievements, and optimization of the innovation and entrepreneurship environment. Establish mechanisms for the review and protection of intellectual property for new technologies, new business forms, and new models in the digital field, better mobilize the enthusiasm of innovation entities, and fully stimulate innovation and creativity.

推进数字关键核心技术攻关。构筑自立自强的数字技术创新体系，进一步明确数字技术创新主攻方向，制定数字关键核心技术创新攻关计划，为企业、科研机构、高等院校等技术创新主体提供未来发展方向指引和政策支持，加大对数字经济领军企业的资源倾斜与资金支持力度。加强对财政支持、金融支持、人才培养、知识产权保护、科技成果转化以及创新创业环境优化等多个方面的监督与管理，建立对数字领域新技术、新业态、新模式的知识产权审查和保护机制，更好调动创新主体积极性，充分激发创新创造活力。

Accelerate the pace of digital industrialization and industrial digitization. On the one hand, vigorously promote digital industrialization. Focus on areas such as integrated circuits and advanced computing, accelerate the construction of digital industry clusters with international competitiveness; around frontier directions such as quantum information, next-generation artificial intelligence, and 6G, strengthen basic research and key technology research, promote deep integration of the innovation chain and industrial chain, actively layout and cultivate future industries, and shape new competitive advantages in the new round of industrial competition. On the other hand, deeply promote industrial digitization. Relying on digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, and the Internet of Things, carry out full-chain digital transformation of the three industries [4]4 The three industries (三次产业) refer to the primary (agriculture), secondary (manufacturing and construction), and tertiary (services) sectors of the economy., guide digital technology to continuously exert efforts in fields such as intelligent manufacturing, smart agriculture, and digital finance. By creating a batch of benchmark enterprises for digital transformation, typical application scenarios, and industry solutions, drive the overall advancement of digital transformation across the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain, comprehensively improve the production efficiency, innovation capability, and core competitiveness of traditional industries, and provide solid support for promoting high-quality economic development and building a modern industrial system.

加快数字产业化和产业数字化步伐。一方面，大力推进数字产业化。聚焦集成电路、先进计算等领域，加快构建具有国际竞争力的数字产业集群；围绕量子信息、下一代人工智能、6G等前沿方向，加强基础研究与关键技术攻关，推动创新链与产业链深度融合，积极布局和培育未来产业，塑造新一轮产业竞争新优势。另一方面，深入推进产业数字化，依托人工智能、大数据、物联网等数字技术对三次产业进行全链条数字化改造，引导数字技术在智能制造、智慧农业、数字金融等领域持续发力。通过打造形成一批数字化转型标杆企业、典型应用场景和行业解决方案，带动产业链上下游整体推进数字化转型，全面提升传统产业生产效率、创新能力和核心竞争力，为推动经济高质量发展和构建现代化产业体系提供坚实支撑。

(The author is a specially-appointed researcher at the Research Center for the Theoretical System of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, and President and Second-Level Professor of Xinjiang Institute of Technology.)

（作者系新疆维吾尔自治区中国特色社会主义理论体系研究中心特约研究员，新疆科技学院院长、二级教授）

Online Editor: Huihui

网络编辑：慧慧