Data flow seen as key to growth of digital trade

Experts urge more efforts to deepen global cooperation, establish safe mechanisms

China's emphasis on resolving cross-border data flow issues and developing digital trade and cross-border e-commerce exports will further unleash the value of massive data resources and inject fresh impetus into the digital economy, demonstrating the country's firm determination to advance high-standard opening-up, experts said.

Highlighting that data has become a new type of production factor, they said that heightened efforts should be made to establish a safe and orderly cross-border data flow mechanism and strengthen international cooperation in data governance, which is a key prerequisite for bolstering the growth of digital trade.

Their comments came as the Central Economic Work Conference, which was held on Monday and Tuesday, emphasized efforts to resolve issues such as cross-border data flow, foster new drivers of foreign trade, and expand digital trade and cross-border e-commerce exports.

Bai Ming, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, said the meeting sent a clear signal that China places great emphasis on cross-border data flow, which plays an important role in the country's push to accelerate the construction of basic systems for data.

"Cross-border data flow, application of digital technologies and openness and sharing of data will inject new momentum into the development of China's digital trade and bring about new opportunities for related industries and enterprises," Bai said.

Huang Xianhai, vice-president of Zhejiang University, said it is necessary to encourage the country's pilot free trade zones to carry out trials on the facilitation of cross-border data flow, and explore data classification and relevant supervision mechanisms, in order to boost the safe, orderly and convenient flow of cross-border data.

"China has paid great attention to the data flow issue in the context of safeguarding data security," Huang said, noting that more concerted efforts are needed to nurture a data elements market, promote the confirmation of data-related rights, and facilitate the circulation and transaction of data resources.

He added that digital trade is a new engine for China's endeavor to build itself into a strong trade nation, while cross-border e-commerce has become an important new driving force in the nation's foreign trade.

China's cross-border e-commerce has seen robust growth in recent years. The scale of the country's cross-border e-commerce reached 1.7 trillion yuan ($238 billion) in the first three quarters of the year, up 14.4 percent year-on-year, the Ministry of Commerce said on Thursday.

Zhang Zhouping, a senior analyst at the Internet Economy Institute, said cross-border e-commerce has emerged as a vital channel for small and medium-sized Chinese enterprises to expand in overseas markets. He said that data is increasingly crucial for the operation and development of enterprises, and solving the problem of cross-border data flow can help enterprises make better business decisions.