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"Digital Economy and Urban Development Forum" of the 2025 Global Digital Economy Conference Successfully Held
2025-07-08
The 2025 Global Digital Economy Conference opened on the morning of July 2 at the China National Convention Center. As an important part of the conference, the "Digital Economy and Urban Development Forum", hosted by the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, was successfully held on July 4 in Conference Room 310 of the China National Convention Center. This forum aimed to implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important remarks on the digital economy, further promote the integration of the real economy and digital economy as well as digital and intelligent transformation, assist Beijing in building a global benchmark city for the digital economy, and serve the acceleration of forming new productive forces with Beijing characteristics.
Xu Qiang, Party Secretary and Director of the National Information Center; Li Hui, Chief Engineer of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology; Liang Liang, Deputy Director of the Management Committee of Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone; and all leaders of the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences attended the forum.
The forum featured a keynote report by Xu Qiang, and themed speeches by 9 experts from the Central Party School (National School of Administration), the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Peking University, Tsinghua University, the National Industrial Information Security Development Research Center, the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, the China Unicom Research Institute, Zhilian Recruitment, and the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences. Representatives from various sectors, including government departments such as the Beijing Municipal Development and Reform Commission and the Beijing Municipal Urban Management Commission; universities such as the China University of Labor Relations and Beijing Technology and Business University; research institutions such as the Beijing Academy of Science and Technology and the Beijing Institute of Economic and Social Development; enterprises such as Taiji Computer Co., Ltd.; media such as Guangming Daily and Beijing Daily; as well as section-level cadres and researchers in related fields from the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, participated in the forum.
Li Hui pointed out in his speech that in 2024, Beijing's digital economy achieved innovative breakthroughs in five areas, including breakthrough progress in artificial intelligence, continuous release of digital industrialization momentum, remarkable demonstration effects of the pilot zone for data basic systems, deepened "one district, one product" characteristic development pattern, and the construction of a global-oriented opening-up pattern. In 2025, Beijing, with the main line of empowering high-quality urban development through the digital economy, is accelerating the construction of a new paradigm for the integration of digital ecology and urban development. He stated that the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology will further strengthen cooperation with the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences to jointly promote the construction and development of a global benchmark city for the digital economy.
On behalf of the host, Professor Xie Hui, Party Secretary of the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, delivered a speech, introducing the work characteristics and goals of the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences as a comprehensive research institution of philosophy and social sciences serving the development of the capital, as well as the work and achievements in the field of digital economy in the past three years. He expressed that taking the hosting of this forum as a new starting point, it will further gather the wisdom of industry, academia, and research, strive to build a normalized, sustainable, and high-level collaborative innovation mechanism. Closely connecting with Beijing's vivid practice of building a global benchmark city for the digital economy, focusing on the frontier areas of digital economy empowering urban development, deepening research on forward-looking and trending issues, and continuously deepening, strengthening, and refining the digital economy research brand.
Researcher He Yalan, President of the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, presided over the keynote report session. Xu Qiang delivered a keynote report entitled "Leading Digital Economy Development through Urban Digital and Intelligent Transformation", pointing out that to promote the mutual promotion, coexistence, and coordinated development of smart cities and the digital economy, it is necessary to accelerate the comprehensive transformation and upgrading of industries with cities as the support, continuously deepen digital economy opening-up and cooperation with cities as the reliance, and constantly meet the people's needs for a better life with cities as the carrier. He believes that AI CITY is the only way to promote the construction of Chinese modernization, advancing from "Digital China" to "Digital-Intelligent China". In the future, we should jointly build a benchmark for digital infrastructure to consolidate the development foundation; outline a blueprint for data circulation to activate the value of elements; explore application innovation paths to empower industrial transformation; and build a defense line for governance collaboration to safeguard digital security.
Professor Yang Weiguo, Deputy Party Secretary and Vice President of the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, presided over the results release and themed speech session. On behalf of the research team, Associate Researcher Bi Juan, Deputy Director of the Institute of Management of the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, released the "China Digital Economy Industry Innovation Evaluation Report", interpreting the regional pattern of China's digital economy industry innovation and development. The report shows that Beijing's innovation index ranks first in the country. It also evaluates the development level of the digital economy in various regions of the country from the dimensions of echelon distribution, key indicators, different regions, major economic circles, different economic development levels, and industrial structures. Finally, countermeasures and suggestions are put forward from the perspectives of digital transformation and upgrading of industrial structure, consolidating infrastructure construction, strengthening talent training, enhancing technological innovation capabilities, developing digital government platforms, and promoting data opening and sharing.
Fan Wenzhong, Member of the Party Leadership Group and Vice President of the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, delivered a speech entitled "Urban Financial Development Goals and Digital-Intelligent Economic Innovation", pointing out that urban financial development goals should shift from scale to efficiency, reduce transaction costs, improve transparency, and find a balanced path of "two-way innovation". In the era of artificial intelligence, we should vigorously promote the construction of digital-intelligent infrastructure, ensure efficient data supply, strengthen the supporting role of computing power, and ensure the steady development of large models. He proposed that the trends of financial institutions and service models show four changes: data analysis has shifted from regular financial statements to real-time data portraits; payment and settlement have shifted from the legal currency bank account system to stablecoin transaction ledgers; fundraising methods have shifted from enterprise listing and stock issuance to RWA digital asset tokenization; and investment institutions have shifted from traditional company models to digital-intelligent contract communities.
Zhai Yun, Researcher and Doctoral Supervisor of the National Governance Teaching and Research Department of the Central Party School (National School of Administration), delivered a speech entitled "Releasing the Vitality of Data Elements and Stimulating Strong Momentum of the Digital Economy", pointing out that facing the new situation of the "three-phase superposition" of the economic growth speed shift period, the structural adjustment pain period, and the previous stimulus policy digestion period, the digital economy is an important momentum for achieving innovative development. From the six perspectives of data connection, data aggregation, data opening, data allocation, data application, and data governance, he proposed that data foundation projects should be carried out to promote government data sharing, accelerate public data opening, implement data authorized operation, explore data scenario applications, and optimize the data development ecosystem. Strengthen data governance by building three systems: technical system, institutional mechanism, and legal system.
Li Yongjian, Researcher of the Institute of Financial Strategy of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Professor and Doctoral Supervisor of the School of Applied Economics of the University of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, delivered a speech entitled "The Digital Economy Promotes the Development of New Productive Forces in Cities", proposing that digital technology reform reshapes the three elements of new productive forces in cities: laborers' transformation to achieve skill and role upgrading, intelligent tool revolution of means of labor, and data as a new element of objects of labor. Digital organizational reform optimizes the allocation of urban production factors, and digital economic systems promote the formation of new urban production relations. In the context of new productive forces, the development of the digital economy faces constraints from data elements and core technologies at the technical level, practical contradictions between production collaboration and efficiency optimization at the organizational level, and dual challenges of innovation-driven and market regulation at the institutional level.
Ma Liang, Professor and Doctoral Supervisor of the School of Government of Peking University, delivered a speech entitled "Whose City and What Kind of Wisdom: Digital Government Construction and Smart City Development", pointing out that the development of smart cities has realized a transformation from concept to technology, to industry, and then to national strategy. He raised a series of questions such as who will build smart cities, who smart cities serve, and who plays a key decision-making role in them. He pointed out that smart city construction needs to handle two relationships: one is the relationship between value and technology or between goals and means; the other is the relationship between technology, people, and organizations. He also emphasized the role of digital government in smart city construction. In strengthening digital government construction, digitalization promotes transformation, and transformation ensures digitalization, so achieving the parallel development of both is the key.
Rong Ke, Director of the Institute of Economics of the School of Social Sciences of Tsinghua University, Tenured Professor, and Doctoral Supervisor, delivered a speech entitled "Global Digital Benchmark City: Building an 'Heaven, Earth, Space, and Spirit' Industrial System". He believes that future Sino-US competition will focus on the four industries of "heaven, earth, space, and spirit". At present, in China, in terms of "heaven" (commercial aerospace), the degree of openness and application scenarios need to be improved and increased; in terms of "earth" (intelligent interconnection), productivity cannot be fully released; in terms of "space" (low-altitude economy), it faces challenges such as technology and safety; in terms of "spirit" (virtual space), it faces concerns about "shifting from reality to virtuality" and regulatory uncertainty. He suggested promoting the development of the "heaven, earth, space, and spirit" industrial system from four aspects: industrial collaboration, monetary policy, opening-up to the outside world, and talent introduction and cultivation, to assist Beijing in building a global benchmark city for the digital economy.
Yin Limei, Deputy Director of the Information Policy Institute of the National Industrial Information Security Development Research Center, delivered a speech entitled "Accelerating Industrial Data Application and Consolidating the Industrial Foundation for Urban Digital Economy Development - Based on the 2024 Collection of Typical Practical Cases of Data Element Application Scenarios in the Industrial Field", pointing out that industrial data is the cornerstone of data-driven urban digital economy development. Through the analysis of more than 70 typical cases of data element application scenarios in the industrial field in terms of R&D and design, pilot testing, production and manufacturing, etc., she put forward suggestions on carrying out the construction, circulation, and application of high-quality industrial data sets to promote data to better empower urban industrial development, strengthen empowerment support to consolidate the data foundation for urban industrial development, adhere to scenario leadership to deepen data empowerment for urban industrial development, and promote multi-party collaboration to continuously optimize the urban industrial development ecosystem.
Cui Ying, Director of the Industrial Planning Institute of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, delivered a speech entitled "Practice and Reflection on Digital-Intelligent Driven Urban Whole-Domain Transformation", pointing out that artificial intelligence has driven cities into a new stage of whole-domain digital-intelligent transformation. She proposed to promote the whole-domain digital-intelligent transformation and development of cities: first, accelerate the construction of urban data circulation facilities, build a multi-cross data collaboration network, and cultivate a high-quality data ecosystem; second, follow the principle of applicable and practical development, and improve the urban large model service ecosystem step by step; third, strengthen the opening of urban whole-domain scenarios and factor support, and promote the in-depth application of artificial intelligence through industry-city integration; fourth, adhere to classification and grading, formulate transformation routes in line with the city's "genes", and promote coordinated regional development.
Yang Jinzhou, Director of the Digital Economy Research Center of the China Unicom Research Institute, delivered a speech entitled "Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Intelligent Computing Corridor Driven by Embodied Intelligence - Building a Regional Computing Power Engine in the Future Era of Human-Machine Symbiosis", pointing out that embodied intelligence will reshape the economic and social pattern and spawn new computing power demands. Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei has the golden triangle advantages of Beijing's intelligent genes, Hebei's clean energy base, and Tianjin's intelligent manufacturing artery. He suggested four strategies for the "intelligent computing corridor": laying out a main axis of the intelligent computing corridor, three types of edge computing power nodes, an energy-computing power-network collaboration paradigm, and an open test site, to create a new regional collaboration model of "technology-manufacturing-application" trinity where Beijing focuses on R&D, Tianjin on pilot transformation, Hebei on large-scale manufacturing, and Xiong'an on pilot implementation.
Li Qiang, Vice President of Zhilian Recruitment, delivered a speech entitled "New Map of Supply and Demand for New-Quality Talents in Cities". Based on the data analysis of Zhilian Recruitment, it is concluded that Beijing's recruitment demand for new-quality industries ranks first in the country, with high demand for high-tech talents and a significant increase in jobs related to the digital economy. New-quality talents in Beijing are characterized by high education and high qualifications. He put forward suggestions on promoting employment through the joint efforts of multiple subjects: at the government level, encourage more jobs to be released in the field of new productive forces and improve the skill training system required for the development of new productive forces; at the enterprise level, actively explore new business areas and adjust the employee training system; at the university level, integrate industry and education to collaborate in talent cultivation, and increase practical courses in combination with market demand; at the level of human resource service institutions, improve digital service capabilities to help the outside world understand the employment situation.
Finally, Professor Yang Weiguo, Deputy Party Secretary and Vice President of the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, once again thanked and highly appreciated the wonderful speeches of experts, scholars, and enterprise representatives from different fields of government, industry, academia, and research, and expressed the most sincere thanks to the experts, scholars, and guests present. He emphasized that this forum enabled us to more deeply understand and grasp the major strategic significance and important content of developing digital-intelligent transformation and building a benchmark city for the digital economy, providing new ideas for our future research work on the digital economy and urban development, especially exploring Beijing's experience in building a global benchmark city for the digital economy and promoting high-quality development of the capital in the new era.
Beijing is steadily advancing the construction of a global benchmark city for the digital economy, and the digital economy has entered a new stage of high-quality development, achieving remarkable results in key areas. The successful holding of the "Digital Economy and Urban Development Forum" of the 2025 Global Digital Economy Conference not only built a communication and cooperation platform with both theoretical depth and practical value for experts, scholars, and enterprise representatives in the digital economy field but also inspired thinking, explored paths, and sought common development for promoting Beijing's construction of a global benchmark city for the digital economy.
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