The following Chinese government plan calls for making data more plentiful and accessible in industries such as manufacturing, agriculture, transportation, finance, scientific research, and healthcare. The plan covers the years 2024-2026 and focuses on breaking down bureaucratic and other barriers to the flow of data. It also advocates using the resulting data to train large sector-specific AI models.

An archived version of the Chinese source text is available online at:    https://perma.cc/UN89-V4AB

Three-Year Action Plan for “Data Factor of Production ×” (2024-2026)

Giving full play to the amplification, superposition, and multiplication effects of the data factor of production (数据要素) and building a digital economy in which data serve as a key factor of production are inevitable requirements for promoting high-quality development. This Action Plan is formulated in order to thoroughly implement the spirit of the 20th Party Congress and the Central Economic Work Conference, implement the Opinions of the CCP Central Committee and the State Council on Constructing a Basic System for Data and Putting Data Factors of Production to Better Use,¹ fully unleash the multiplier effect of the data factor of production, and empower economic and social development.

I. Activating the Potential of the Data Factor of Production

As a new round of scientific and technological (S&T) revolution and industrial transformation deepens and develops, the value of data as a key factor of production (生产要素) has become increasingly prominent. Leveraging the characteristics of the data factor of production, such as increasing returns to scale and low-cost reuse, can optimize resource allocation, empower the real economy, develop new quality productive forces (新质生产力), and drive profound transformations in production and daily life, economic development, and social governance. This is of great significance for promoting high-quality development.

In recent years, China’s digital economy has developed rapidly, the scale and capacity of digital infrastructure have risen markedly, and digital technologies and industrial systems have become increasingly mature, laying a solid foundation for better leveraging the role of the data factor of production. At the same time, problems remain, including insufficient data supply quality, impeded circulation mechanisms, and failure to unleash the potential for applications. Implementing the “Data Factor of Production ×” initiative is intended to leverage China’s multiple advantages, such as its ultra-large-scale market, massive data resources, and abundant application scenarios, to promote coordination between the data factor of production and other factors such as labor and capital; to use data flows to lead technology flows, capital flows, talent flows, and material flows; to break through constraints imposed by traditional resource factors of production; and to raise total factor productivity. It will also promote the application of data across multiple scenarios and reuse by multiple entities, cultivate new products and services based on the data factor of production, realize knowledge diffusion and value multiplication, and open up new space for economic growth. In addition, it will accelerate the integration of diverse data and use the expansion of data scale and the enrichment of data types to drive innovation and upgrading of production tools, foster new industries and new models, and cultivate new dynamism (新动能) for economic development.

II. Overall Requirements

(1) Guiding Ideology

Guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, this Action Plan thoroughly implements the guiding principles of the 20th Party Congress; fully, accurately, and comprehensively applies the new concept of development (新发展理念); gives play to the foundational resource role and innovative engine role of data; and follows the laws of digital economy development. With promoting the high-level application of the data factor of production as the main thread, and with advancing the coordinated optimization of the data factor of production, efficiency gains through reuse, and integrated innovation as the focus, this Action Plan strengthens demand-driven scenario guidance, drives high-quality supply and compliant, efficient circulation of the data factor of production, cultivates new industries, new models, and new dynamism, and fully realizes the value of the data factor of production, thereby providing strong support for promoting high-quality development and advancing Chinese-style modernization.

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1. Translator’s note: CSET’s English translation of the Opinions of the CCP Central Committee and the State Council on Constructing a Basic System for Data and Putting Data Factors of Production to Better Use is available online at: https://cset.georgetown.edu/publication/opinions-of-the-ccp-central-committee-and-the-state-council-on-constructing-a-basic-system-for-data-and-putting-data-factors-of-production-to-better-use/.