Huge following: People walk pass an advertisement for Alibaba’s Singles’ Day shopping event in Shanghai. The market scale of China’s digital economy reached US$7.1 trillion (RM31.35 trillion) last year, which was the second largest globally. — Bloomberg
BEIJING: China’s platform companies and the digital economy are expected to embrace a new round of high-quality development after two years of healthy correction.
This will also bring new dynamics to the country’s private sector and economic growth, government officials, leading industry experts and company executives said.
They made the comments following the tone-setting Central Economic Work Conference that ended last Friday, which stated that platform companies will be supported to “fully display their capabilities” in bolstering economic growth, job creation and international competition.
Wei Jianguo, a former vice-minister of commerce and vice-chairman of the China Centre for International Economic Exchanges, said: “The conference has sent a strong signal that China will vigorously develop the digital economy and encourage the development of the platform economy over the year to come.
“It is an affirmation from the government on the role of platform companies in driving economic growth, as well as an encouragement for them to now make another step forward,” he said.
At the 2020 Central Economic Work Conference, central authorities pledged to prevent the “disorderly expansion of capital”.
In 2021, the conference maintained that the country should set red and green lights for capital market activity in order to prevent “barbaric growth”.
As a result, a group of platform companies – Internet and tech companies that leverage platforms to offer services – such as Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent Holdings, which had been engaging in monopolistic practices, underwent corrective measures.
“This positive shift aims to enable platform companies to not only lead development in various business sectors in the domestic market, but also compete further on the global stage in the future.
“To some extent, China’s platform economy is expected to usher in a new round of healthy development,” Wei said.
In line with these new moves, Zhu Keli, founding director of the China Institute of New Economy, said that a group of green light investment cases are likely to be announced soon, and detailed policies and measures to support the standardised and healthy development of the platform economy are expected to be unveiled next year.
A white paper released by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, a government think tank, showed that the market scale of China’s digital economy reached US$7.1 trillion (RM31.35 trillion) last year, which was the second largest globally. — China Daily/ANN
