Shanghai has opened an expansive industrial park focusing on the data industry, as the city pushes forward its ambitious three-year digital economy blueprint as part of China's efforts to boost digital trade.
The International Data Economy Industrial Park, located in the pilot free-trade zone of Lingang, is tasked with "implementing safe and orderly cross-border flows of international online data", according to a policy document unveiled by Lingang officials at the International Data Economy Industry Cooperation Conference on Friday.
Under the plan, the park aims to build itself into an international industry cluster with more than 100 leading data companies and a combined output of over 100 billion yuan (US$13.6 billion) by 2025.
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The park, intended to be a "bridgehead for high-level international data cooperation", will serve as a stress test for China's goal to join international trade pacts, including the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, one of the world's largest free-trade areas by economic output, the document said.
The trade bloc currently includes Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.
Shanghai is working to turn its digital economy into a new growth engine as part of its three-year digital economy master plan unveiled in August. Photo: EPA-EFE alt=Shanghai is working to turn its digital economy into a new growth engine as part of its three-year digital economy master plan unveiled in August. Photo: EPA-EFE>
The park is also expected to support the development of a number of hi-tech sectors such as humanoid robots and internet data centres.
On Friday, the park welcomed its first batch of 25 companies involved in data-related businesses.
The plan reflects broader efforts by Shanghai to turn its digital economy into a new growth engine, as laid out in the local government's 2023-2025 digital economy master plan unveiled in August.
Under the three-year plan, the existing Shanghai Data Exchange, which started trading various data products in November 2021, will be transformed into a larger "national-level data exchange" capable of covering transactions across the country by 2025, when some 5,000 data products are expected to be listed on the bourse.