Accelerating system building for digital circulation
A digital industrial chain producing robots in Foshan, Guangdong Province, March 22 Photo: CFP
To build a new development paradigm, building a modernized circulation system must be considered a vital strategic task. Promoting the digital economy’s deep integration with the circulation system through digital empowerment and structuring the digital circulation system are not only central to building a modernized circulation system, but also the internal requirement of building a unified national market.
Strategic support
The new development paradigm smooths national economic circulation, and builds a unified market for domestic circulation. The modernized circulation system is the aorta of the unified national market. The degree of perfection and efficiency of the circulation system directly determines the smoothness and quality levels of national economic circulation.
Modernization of the circulation system, empowered by digital technologies, is a powerful agent for the coordination and mutual promotion of dual circulation. As a new factor of production, data enters market circulation, forming a large loop of multimodal goods, services, and factors of production. The transformation and upgrade of the traditional circulation system, fueled by digital technologies, is conducive not only to breaking monopolies and market segmentation, but also to promoting the construction of a standardized, open, and orderly unified national market. This transformation can break through national boundaries, and temporal and spatial constraints, to form an effective domestic and foreign trade and investment linkage mechanism, realize the integrated allocation of resource factors of production in the whole industrial chain, and promote the coordinated development of domestic and international circulation.
Digitally empowered modernization
The digital economy is the future global development direction. An agile, accurate, and secure digital circulation system is required for the modernization of the digital economy’s circulation system, and these are also the new characteristics of the circulation system’s development endowed by the new era.
First, let us discuss agility. Rapid demand satisfaction, rapid supply response, and high-quality dynamic balance of supply and demand are realized via an agile circulation system. Second, accuracy is essential. Based on an accurate portrait created by a deep mining of big data on the demand side, digital circulation entities perform demand traction and consumption feedback for the supply side. Adaptive reform and innovation of the supply system has been fueled by personalized, differentiated, and high-quality consumption demand with the support of an accurate circulation system, which connects and interacts with the industrial internet and the consumer internet, promoting the national economy’s healthy circulation. The third requirement is security. Information collection and sharing along the complete chain from product production, purchase and sale, storage and transportation, based on the Internet of Things information platform and QR code digital management technologies, can realize digitization and visualization of the product’s quality and safety information. This can also realize the trackability, traceability, and product feedback through the product’s whole life cycle.
An agile, accurate, and secure digital circulation system is the key foundation to connect production and consumption on a wider scale and at a higher quality, and improves the national economy’s overall operational efficiency. It is a vital support which promotes the smooth operation and diversification of industrial and supply chains.
China still sees deficiencies in circulation entities’ digital capabilities, circulation’s development modes, and digital infrastructure. To accelerate system building for digital circulation, we must base our work on the new development stage, put into practice the new development philosophy.
The digital level of circulation entities requires improvement. Circulation enterprises should be encouraged to implement all-round reform. Powerful and advantageous circulation enterprises should be guided to lead the construction and integration of digital supply chains and industrial chains. The digital industrial ecological environment should be improved.
We should innovate circulation’s development modes. With digitalized concepts, technologies, and methods, we will comprehensively deconstruct and reshape organizational and industrial relations and the operation mechanism, to form a new circulation development path that actively innovates, employs win-win cooperation, and adapts to the digital economy’s characteristics. First, we should support physical stores and traditional e-commerce platforms to use digital technologies to innovate new formats and models. Second, we should encourage circulation innovation to deeply integrate with the development of agriculture and manufacturing, based on 5G application scenarios and the industrial ecology. Third, we should accelerate platform transformation in traditional circulation enterprises and create an industrial ecosystem with moderate competition and value creation.
We should strengthen software and hardware construction for the digital circulation system. The infrastructure of digital circulation systems should be enhanced. Business environments should be optimized.
The digital integration in domestic and foreign trade should be promoted. We should build a major channel for domestic and international markets through digitalization, accessing China’s leading technology advantages in cross-border e-commerce, mobile payments, and create a digital link for the integrated development of domestic and foreign trade.
Ren Rong and Zhang Fuchun (professor) are from the Faculty of International Trade at Shanxi University of Finance and Economics.
Edited by ZHAO YUAN